Today, attorney Altin Goxhaj published video footage of police arresting 25 protesters in Kukës, on the night of the Rruga e Kombit highway protest.
Footage from security cameras in one of the detainee’s homes demonstrate that the arrest of at least one protester, Xhevahir Heremi, was made at 3:50 a.m. on April 1, 2018.
This proves that Police and Prosecution records have been falsified – the records and arrest warrants did not have the accurate time of arrest in them, but rather the time the arrested protesters arrived at the Police Commissariat in Tirana.
The actions of the Police and the Prosecution are in open contradiction with article 255, point 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Albania, which stipulates:
The date, hour and the name of judicial officer that carried out the arrest or detention shall be noted in the minutes.
Falsifying the time of the arrest allowed the Prosecution to refer the case to the court later than the legally mandated deadline of 48 hours after the arrest.
The newly-published footage voids the court’s decision to leave 11 protesters awaiting trial in custody, seeing as, according to article 259, point 4 of the Criminal Procedure Code:
When the arrest or detention is unlawful, the court decides the immediate release of the person arrested or detained.
The Appeals Court in Shkodra is expected to soon review the case of 11 protesters who had to remain in prison. They requested to be released based on the procedural violations during their arrest.
