On the anniversary of the January 21 events, Prime Minister Edi Rama and the family members of four martyrs of the Motherland, Ziver Veizi, Hekuran Deda, Aleks Nika and Faik Myrtaj, who were tragically killed during a protest on January 21, 2011 events, gathered at the Prime Minister’s office to pay tribute and honor their memory.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Very dear family members of the Martyrs of the Motherland, who unjustly lost their lives on January 21, 2011. Thirteen years since the tragic “January 21”, today this commemoration event brings us together again just like it has been the case each year with this close family, more than just hope is now revived in the complete darkness of the justice-seeking tunnel over all these years.
Today, unlike previous commemorative events, we have come together not only to commemorate, but also to say these words, because finally there is more than just hope, a dim light on the long path towards the end of this tunnel.
The words of our hope today emanate not only from the unyielding desire not to give up to the suffocating darkness of the old justice system, but also from the real signs of the awakening of justice even for January 21 events.
One sign of this long-awaited awakening is straightforward, namely the significant decision by the European Court of Human Rights, which qualifies “January 21” as a state crime that has yet to be investigated, making it impossible for the January 21 events to be read in a dubious way as the those who seek justice for the January 21 events wish or the desire of those who wish to stifle justice for January 21 in Albanian politics and in Tirana Judicial District Prosecutor’s Office.
Another sign of the justice awakening is the activity of the Special Prosecution against Organized Crime and Corruption, a body that has recently entered a new, meaningful phase by ultimately breaking the layered ice between the Albanian state and justice system over the last 100 years.
A date announced by Albania’s High Court stands between the two, namely February 27, 2024. A little more than a month from today, we will find out if “the blood file of January 21″ will be forwarded to SPAK to properly launch the investigation into the state crime based on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights or will it continue to remain closed – God knows how long – under the big belly of the Prosecutor’s Office of Tirana district judiciary.
These two completely different sides of the medal of justice for “January 21” are actually the very embodiment of Albania’s justice system today. A body laying across the country, which at last has begun to show some encouraging signs of life thanks to our iron will to keep the hands of political power away from justice, thanks to the judicial reform that we led and approved with this will, I undoubtedly thank the activity of SPAK and the Special Court, which are providing encouraging evidence that doing justice is possible in this country.
While other limbs and organs of the body of justice continue to agonize through the inertia of the age-old derangement and partial waking for certain cases, mostly minor ones, or they continue to shamelessly sleep on yellowed files of exemplary crimes, with January 21 being the crime of crimes and the most shrieking proof of the need to further deepen the justice and anti-corruption reform as a whole.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Tirana Judicial District is one of those limbs. However, how come that over all these years and while other limbs are in place to deliver on good governance and the control of the system of vileness see this totally unjustifiable procrastination and do nothing at all. And the question is: was really that difficult for the system to do what the European Court for Human Rights did? And one wonders, should we prepare for the worst should the system fail to act again also according to legally-binding decision by the European Court of Human Rights? Therefore “January 21” is as much a need for direct justice related to a state crime as it is a motive and a reflection to better understand what our duty is as leaders and as a political guarantor of justice reform, while Albania has embarked on a real, open national challenge between past injustice and the future that we must definitely make today’s Albania as a stare of rule of law. In the meantime, we can’t idly wait for the justice reform outcomes.
However, apart from this open national challenge, which is a challenge concerning the whole society and all of those who serve in various positions or as representatives of all three independent powers are seeking and are ready to make Albania a democratic and functional state of the rule of law, according to all the European Union standards. Today’s commemorative event on the January 21 events is a special one! It is a special event precisely because for the first time after 13 years today, our hope is not being nurtured internally by us only, but also by the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights and the already demonstrated will and readiness of SPAK and the Special Court to hit high-profile corruption without having their hands tied by the political power and without fearing the political scarecrows that kept justice away from Albania for more than 100 years.
Today we can do nothing but hope that Albania’s High Court will do justice and deliver just ruling on February 27 and remove the heavy burden of the January 21 events from the boneless back of the Prosecutor’s Office of Tirana Judicial District to transfer it to the hands of SPAK to full look into what has been clearly written on the decision of that Court, and nothing more, but nothing less, and send then the outcome of that investigation into the hands of the Special Court, where Albania and Albanians will ultimately be able to fully see all of those who should be held accountable for the January 21 events.
We certainly knew it, didn’t we? We knew since day one! Since the day when thousands of people gathered in the silent march on January 28, 2011, we knew that January 21 is one of those events in history, and not only in our history, but also in world history, that justice can never be done swiftly, yet it never forgets to be done.
With these words, I wish to share with all the family members on behalf of all the colleagues here, on behalf of our big political family that governs the country today, be it the unwavering will as always to stand side by side until the day of the judgment of “January 21”, but even the faith fueled precisely by a dramatic moment in this history that also marks a dramatic turn in the right direction and which unfortunately did not come as a result of the internal strength of the justice system, but came as a result of the European force of justice, the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.
Thank you very much!
