Address by Prime Minister Edi Rama to the newly formed Power of Law Operation unit of the State Police tasked with implementing the Special Law on assets of the convicts, or organized crime suspects:

Honourable members of the State Police’s Special Forces units and honourable members of the newest Power of Law Operation unit.

Mr. Director General,

Chief Special Prosecutor,

Heads of the law enforcement agencies, agencies against money-laundering, and the Agency for the Administration of Seized and Confiscated Assets,

Today marks a milestone of special importance in the history of Albania’s State Police fight against crime and I am confident this is a point of importance that will take the fight against crime and the authority and the public’s respect for the State Police and the state itself to a whole new level.

“Extreme times call for extreme actions and measures,” a saying dating back to the ancient Greece has it and I believe this is the place and time to renew and reiterate it bearing in mind exactly this moment, when we are ready for an extreme confrontation with the organized crime and when time is ripe to give a crushing blow not only to the organized crime, but also to all of those who nourish lack of confidence in our opportunities, will and our commitment to combat organized crime till the end.

A lot could be certainly said in a lengthy performance analysis of the State Police and our efforts over the past few years to take the state to a whole new level and of course restore the right. But what one cannot absolutely deny is that the State Police today, like never before, are committed to speak through accomplishments, facts and concrete figures, which make any comparison with the past absolutely impossible.

While we are undoubtedly aware that the future and the Albania we want for our children will be much brighter than today Albania. This is why we all have come together and if we were to be blamed for everything, we are absolutely not to be criticized for lack of courage to launch and embark on reforms that not only were never launched, but even were not imagined for decades, and for lack of commitment to advance everything against a very difficult backdrop.

Today we are here together to welcome the newest operational unit of the State Police, the Power of Law Operation unit, as well as to encourage and wish them success in this mission of incredible importance to the country and our society and which will start tomorrow. Tomorrow means tomorrow, on Monday, and not tomorrow sometime in the future.

We are already provided with an extremely powerful tool in the hands of the state, in the hands of the State Police and in the hands of the Power of Law Operation. The special law on taking all the necessary measures against the assets of all of those who have been convicted or have stood trial on organized crime charges, terrorism and serious crimes over the past 30 years and today, unlike in the past, we have one more guarantee, SPAK. SPAK, has already been created and this will be the first test the new Special Prosecution Office will have to face, but on the other hand, having an absolute confidence in those who are comprise the nucleus of this nascent justice body, but prepared and trained through a long and very serious process like the vetting process, I am very confident that we are at the right time and in the right place and have the right forces to bring about a historic change to the crime relationship with our country’s space.

The State Police’s Director General quoted an expression I would like to reiterate in order to embed it in the mind of all these boys and girls, who will directly involve in this operation: We should make life and their homeland uncomfortable for all of those who are the subject of this special law. The homeland can no longer be for them the place to fish in troubled waters, it may not be the road for them to showcase their luxurious cars, it can no longer be the site for their villas and businesses that are generated not from work but also from the blood of the commissars and policemen killed in the line of duty in the past 30 years, and cannot be the platform to flex their muscles in clubs and other public spaces where young people, families gather to spend leisure time after work – but it must be their hell.

You know it pretty well, or you know much it better than I do, all the special forces RENEA members who have devoted their lives to the cause of the state and have confronted hardened criminals over the years and decades, Rapid Intervention Eagle units know it quite well that in many cases they have had to be in front of the armoured cars owned by individuals, who would actually do not even deserve to ride on a donkey, rather than drive armoured cars.  The State Police officials know it quite well that how many times subjects to this today’s law have been investigated, apprehended and sent to court, but they have laughed at your sacrifices by walking out of the court as free men again. These too are today subject to this law as they should show evidence to justify the source of their wealth and assets.

You all know it very well because I am convinced it has been offensive and hurtful for you to be personally involved in this battle, when we have learned that even those few assets seized compared to the incredible volume of the organized crime assets have been simply returned to these bad guys after being kept for a while in the drawers of the corrupt courts. And these authors, sitting in their luxurious cars or from the balconies of their mansions have ridiculed you, who leave you homes, often hugging your fathers, mothers, wives and husbands, or children as if it is the last time you see them as you take part in operations that can be risky to your lives and nobody never knows how they might end, although fortunately thanks to your capabilities, power, courage and professionalism you succeed and they fail. But just turn your head back and remember your colleagues and friends who didn’t make it and are no longer with us today. They are no longer in this world because of those who enjoy today tremendous wealth.

I am very pleased that we have, though not easily, succeeded, on the one hand, in opening up a historic process of profound transformation of the justice system that goes on, and, on the other hand, today we provide you a tool like this special law to do what I am convinced you have wished to do long time ago and you may have thought that you could never do it. Why? Because of politics.

I am also very pleased that, while we all together, primarily you, we all and the entire society have had to bear insults and pain from the judges’ decisions – just like it was the most recent case of a brainless, eyeless, earless and heartless, but a deep-pocketed judge – who have led monstrous criminals to walk free. While today we are well aware that we will still have to suffer because there are still judges and prosecutors who know pretty well they will never pass the vetting process and live under their black robe as if it were the last day of great deal under the motto “catch what you can catch.”

This package offers the right medicine for these judges and prosecutors. I am telling you all these for everyone to listen. They will all, sooner rather than later, be held accountable, just like the so-called “strongmen” and “the untouchable’ ones will do. They will all be held accountable for their wealth, assets, houses, businesses, land properties, fancy cars and everything else.

The vetting process is neither a court, nor a prosecution office. The vetting process is not in place to punish those who have amassed staggering amounts of wealth by using the hammer of justice to break the justice’s scull. But this is just the stage of sorting the wheat from the chaff, the stage when those who are unable to justify their wealth are removed from the system, whereas the others who successfully undergo the vetting process and emerge clean, just like it is the case of the SPAK members, they join the system and this Power of Law Operation and together with the State Police will ask all suspects to show evidence of the source of their wealth, and the State Police and Prosecutors will have no longer to collect evidence and send them to the court.

Starting tomorrow, a letter will be sent to all these suspected individuals to fill a form about the source of their wealth within 48 hours. This form will then be sent to SPAK and then to the court and they all should appear before the judge and, if they want to keep their assets, they should tell the judge how hardworking guys they are, how many olives and oranges they have harvested, how much they have managed to save and so on and so forth. Otherwise, everything they own today will become a state owned property, primarily a State Police-owned property.

And it will be no longer the case of those embarrassing court processes over these decades, when individuals serving life sentences are released on parole to serve community. The law has set clear deadlines; 48 hours to fill the self-declaration form, whereas SPAK should investigate and refer the case to the court in 15 days and the court will then make a decision in 15 days and then they should bid farewell to their illicit assets.

The confiscated assets will be used to primarily raise pay for the police officers. Their wealth will become a source to reward your work and sacrifices. With their assets we will increase support for the children of slayed police officers. Through their assets we will further support the security academy to educate and train younger generations of the State Police officers and of course with their cars we will enhance the vehicle capabilities of the State Police.

The Anti-KÇK package of laws also bans their free travel abroad, limitation of movement of these subjects outside their administrative units, instead of taking their luxurious cars to travel all over the country and use their firearms among beachgoers, tourists and families who are spending their summer holidays.

The package bans them and their family members from participating in tenders or any other activity funded by the taxpayers’ money. The package also stipulates stripping these people of the business licenses they may run. They will no longer be provided any kind of business license.

The possess radio communication products, special lighting devises, surveillance camera systems but they will no longer have them. They will all prove they have bought them by selling tomato, potatoes, other vegetables or used cloths.

And I will make the last remarks about the corrupt judges and prosecutors, those who attack the State Police and the state itself and assault everyone involved in the operations to apprehend these monsters by using the hammer of justice. But the new package provides for their suspension within three days and beginning of an investigation into them.

They work together. You know very well that, even now while watching us on TV, they work together. While I want to assure you that we are together to bring all of them together right there where they deserve to be. I assure you all of this.

Every one of you may have reservations and legitimate criticism about the government, but I am sure that none of you would say that we have betrayed you, we haven’t respected you and that your working conditions haven’t improved over the past years. Nobody can say that your salaries have not been increased and that you have met with lack of willingness, commitment and readiness to strongly support you and together carry out your duties and tasks. None of you can say that. This can be said by those who do not know or do not want to know how difficult this challenge is and what a great struggle your daily life is, while others go out and go or look for work, whereas your job is a fight in serving the country.

I am very proud that through this package and your capabilities we all together we can give the homeland at this moment, at this stage what the homeland has been seeking for so many years, a clean face and dignity even in the eyes of our international friends and partners.

We cannot leave our homeland to be seen by others with the stains the others have put on its face over the years, those who should have been with you, with us, in the role of prosecutors and judges, but in fact they are with the criminals and together are staining and tarnishing the image of our homeland.

Thanks to this operation, we can be proud to be together today, we can very proudly remember this moment of our joint work, but we can also send to all the ordinary people of this country the message that those who have hitherto been clothed with the informal power of crime and corruption in the courts and prosecutors, will no longer be able to make their lives a hell.

Concluding, I would like to thank you all a lot for what you have done, assuring you of our full support and wishing every success to members of the Power of Law Operation unit. I am concluding this speech urging you to understand that you have the power to make a big investment and increase the high credits, but that should be even higher for the State Police and, above all, increase the credits of our country, in the eyes of our people and the eyes of our friends.

Thank you!