After having been arrested yesterday in the early morning for an alleged call to violence against EU Ambassador Romana Vlahutin, the prosecution ordered Kastriot Myftaraj’s immediate release. According to the prosecution, Myftaraj, who wrote that “any Albanian that loves his own fatherland can kill Romana and this would be an anti-terrorist, not a terrorist act,” did not commit any crime.
In a Facebook post Myftaraj explained his position:
I have not told Albanians to kill Vlahutin, but merely analyzed the scenario of a possible killing of her. In my analysis I raised the question whether the killing of Vlahutin would be a terrorist act. The killing of an accredited foreign diplomat in a country is usually a terrorist act. But when a diplomat openly engages in anticonstitutional acts that threatens the sovereignty of the country where they are accredited?
In response to Myftaraj’s attack, Albanian author Ismail Kadare issued an apology to EU Ambassador Vlahutin from Paris, seemingly in the name of all Albanians:
Dear Romana Vlahutin, I would be ready to ask for your forgiveness on my knees, to assure you that the gratitude for you is and will be inviolable.
Meanwhile, a number of female members of civil society and the Socialist Party, including Minister Milva Ekonomi, deputy Vasilika Hysi, Valdet Sala, and Vjollca Meçaj signed a letter “Against misology that kills,” in which they argue against the misogynist language used by Myftaraj in his attack on Vlahutin.
The right to express oneself freely and frankly within the press is the right of everyone of us, won with the arrival of democracy, but from the other side the damage and shame that this type of article has created for us Albanians is very large and unmerited.
Mrs. Vlahutin, in the name of many Albanian women we thank you for your work and goodwill that Albania goes forward on the road to Europe, in the direction of the only road we want by implementing the justice reform.
