Policia e Shtetit, në 10 vjet: Borxhe, tradhti, rrëfime dhe dokumente

2023-07-16 18:57:00, Aktualitet CNA

Throughout these years, there have been a series of reforms, frequent moves within the leadership hierarchy that have often violated the State Police Law, as well as the allocation of ranks as favoritism to politically connected individuals. In addition to these issues, there have been many contracts for equipment and police equipment and vehicles, most of which have violated the law. Unfortunately, in the midst of all these developments, the life of ordinary police officers has only become more challenging, which shows a significant indifference from the Police chiefs to the dedication, professional contribution and the very well-being of the State Police officers.

Author: INA editorial office

He did not leave the police force even in 1997, when many officers gave up their uniforms. He didn't leave, not even when his vehicle was burned, which Munyr Muça interprets as a message after the murder of chief commissioner Dritan Lamaj, with whom he worked at the Kombinati police station. He suspected at that time of insufficient investigations, from the non-identification of papillary traces to the non-verification of phone records, but he still did not abandon the police, who loved him as much as his family.

At the top of 27 years in office, Commissioner Munyr Muça's cup was filled in October 2020, when he realized that he was insisting on moving forward in a dead end. He decided to leave the police and Albania.

"I ended it with the police. How many bosses and directors are incriminated and with files! They have bars, luxury cars and imagine me or many police officers like us, who are honest, we have no bread to eat", - begins the story for INA MEDIA by the career officer, who has left for Great Britain as immigrant and works outside the profession, which he had dedicated his life to.

For the police commissioner, promotion continues under political influences, depending on the party that takes power, although there was hope that something would change from 2013, he remained an officer.

"They took people from civilian life and made them bosses, young people, who became my superiors", - he ranks between the problems with the police and those of any government, which leaves the stalemate to the successor.

He left, as did hundreds of other officers, not only those who remained basic role policemen for decades, without having the chance to rise in their careers, but also those who opposed the superior for illegal orders.

"In 2018, I applied for chief commissioner, which was also the last course for the degree. We went there and the test was changed. Instead of us filling out a form with 100 questions, part of which had to be written, it didn't happen. Only 12 people won there", - recalls Commissioner Munyr Muça, who at that time, when the General Director was Ardi Veliu, was denied the opportunity to earn the rank he was entitled to by law, not only a right, but also motivation for the career. In fact, Ardi Veliu also received his rank, a few days before he was appointed General Director, which had happened earlier with his predecessors. This influence to make predetermined bosses and directors has never been investigated by the prosecution. In the exclusive documents, available to INA MEDIA, it appears that a report filed by Muhamet Rrumbullaku,

But, unlike Commissioner Muça, who resisted for 27 years, Emiliano Nuhu tells INA MEDIA that he escaped and sought asylum under conditions of real danger. After recording the denunciation of Xisiela Maloku against Rexhep Rraja (the son of the former deputy of the SP, Rrahman Rraja), he was convinced that some of his colleagues were recording the reports and were not on the side of the citizens. Nuhu claims that the whistleblower was threatened in the office of one of the officers and the same thing happened to him.

On August 14, 2018, officer Nuhu sends an e-mail to the General Director of the State Police, Ardi Veliu, informing him that he was threatened by Redjan Rraja and Ramazan Rraja (nephew of the former deputy). This e-mail, made available to INA MEDIA, shows evidence to Veliu about the police, which he led at the time.

"Taking into account the fact that these people are contingent and with marked criminal tendencies in the placement of explosives in vehicles and homes, powerful, impulsive, they always move armed, they are not hit by the local police structures, I feel endangered", - Nuhu writes further to the number one of the police, Ardi Veliu.

He received no response from his superior. Emiliano Nuhu tells Investigative Network Albania that the reaction was an order transferring him to Berat.

"They simply took revenge, moving me 100 km from my place of residence, because I was continuing the tasks delegated to me by the prosecutor's office and this was the best way to recover the file", - says Nuhu for INA MEDIA, who remembers that then he was referred to the prosecutor's office for abuse of office.

As for Nuhu, who is following the developments from the asylum, how the Kruja police did not act in time for a second episode of violence by the Rrajas, who massacred a citizen, after denouncing the quarry of the socialist deputy's brother, Munyr Muça underlines that the failure to clean up police is one of the main problems of this force.

It was difficult for him to start the life of an immigrant at the age of 52, but Muça had lost everything in his homeland, even the house that was demolished to build a palace.

"Today I am 55 years old, I have completed two higher academies, the terrestrial and the Order. In 1993, I became a platoon commander in the Guard for the first time. In 1994, I became a crime inspector", the commissar recalls not without nostalgia.

As a connoisseur of all the transitions in the Albanian police, he says loudly that the police does not go without support, even more so when the laws and superiors, which are changed, affect the career in the police, which brings promotion without meritocracy and that as a consequence it has an impact on the officers, but also on the crime scene.

"The law orders that every year in the month of February, the configuration of ranks is done. From 2012 onwards it has been opened only once. I belonged to no one, I was not included in the list of approvals", the former commissioner emphasizes for INA MEDIA.

The State Police admits that since 2013, 1,405 employees have given up their careers in the police, however, the annual reports, studied by INA MEDIA, show that every year an average of 350 to 400 officers are relieved of their duties, who are replaced by the number annual and increasing student recruits. The State Police further mentions to INA MEDIA that the last competition was opened last fall by the General Director, Muhamet Rrumbullaku.

"The competition for earning the rank is done according to the needs of the police. The last competition was held in September to win the rank of deputy commissioner", - replies the police institution.

But, out of 10,599 employees, who should be a police structure, only 9,632 employees are currently on duty, which means that the police is missing almost 1,000 effective personnel from the departures until the moment of publication of this article.

Exceptions... reprisals, re-admissions and repeating structures
The limit number of State Police employees is set by the Decision of the Council of Ministers number 531, dated July 28, 2022. Including civilian employees, the State Police must have 11,834 employees, of which with police rank should be 10,599 effective.

According to INA MEDIA research, Albania has 231 police officers per 100,000 inhabitants. The digital commissariat, considered the path of citizens' complaints, not only for noise and parking, is currently out of order due to a cyber attack, under investigation since 2021.

"I was constantly calling the hall for the bar below," remembers Drita, "a resident of Komuna e Paris street." - The owner of the bar doesn't know how he found out it was me. I apologized to him. Then I solved the problem. I used to send material to this column and the police are afraid when I leave them with evidence. Bosses have friends below. They used to come and shut them up", complains the elderly woman.

Involved in experiments of structures, which melt without results, the shortest-lived movement turns out to be that of the return of RENEA to a police station (during the time of the director of the State Police, Artan Didi), and which then returned to the historical status of a special forces department, as it happens with such units of the world.

However, the peak of the structural changes occurred during the time of the former General Director, Ardi Veliu, who signed three times the change in the structure of the State Police. OFL and FAST were two structures, aimed at freezing the assets of the dangerous and arresting the most wanted, which turned out to be job factories.

In the documents available to INA MEDIA for every police station in the country during this time, the strangest movement, signed by Veliu, was registered at the Hasi police station. The structure of this police station, consisting of 30 people, had only one crime investigation agent.

A report of the 2014 Assembly Investigative Committee, which was set up to check the implementation of the legislation in force during the movements in the State Police, shows that the State Police continues to have unsolved the stability of the officers and the promotion of theirs. With the aim of evaluating the movements that took place in the police, from September 15, 2013 to January 31, 2014, when the Ministry of the Interior was headed by Saimir Tahiri, the commission tried to simultaneously bring the problem of re-admissions to the police of some former officials removed before 2014, as suspected of corrupt activities and involvement in criminal activities.

Summoned by the investigative commission on the new structure, approved by former minister Tahiri, in October 2013, the Deputy General Director of the State Police at that time admitted that none of the police leaders had proposed changes to the structure.

After this session, Muhamet Rrumbullaku was "touched" by the new "TAHIRI" structure, as he was initially asked to give up his rank and then left the police, to return in 2019 as head of the Internal Affairs Service (today, the Police Oversight Agency). On the other hand, the responsibility for the merger of the structures was partially accepted by Hysni Burgaj, in the capacity of the General Director, who was also appointed before 2013, gaining several ranks at the same time. But the documents made available to INA MEDIA show that the most typical case, which illustrates how officers are pushed to give up their rank, is that of Edmond Rizai, at that time the head of the Directorate of the Fight Against Organized Crime.

He is the only officer who objected to leaving the rank of "First Director" and after that moment he was penalized with a reduction in rank for 6 months, which he contested in court. The court gave him the right. According to INA MEDIA's investigation, it is estimated that a total of 403 police officers left during this period, while another 248 were re-admitted, who also held managerial positions at the time of leaving office.

From a monitoring on the website www.gjykataelartë.gov.al, it is established that the dismissals of the vast majority of officers have been returned for retrial at the Court of Appeal, which also includes dismissed officers, because they had not monitored the territory for gambling. The appeal is the same court that has announced and is simultaneously reviewing the awarding of ranks without competition, which is ordered by the State Police Law. The winners of the judicial ranks received them according to the position where they were assigned, while the opposite should have happened, in these tasks, appointments had to be made according to the ranks.

Between the two sides of an unstable reality for the police, a career battle was fought by the former Deputy General Director for Police Training, Anila Rumano Hoxha, who is getting ready to take the case to the Strasbourg Court.

"By an order of Saimir Tahir, through the new organization of the State Police, the department was merged and thus the position of the leader, issuing an illegal order that removed me from the ranks of the State Police. I say illegal, because in the State Police Law, the State Police employee is guaranteed a new position at the rank he had or one rank below, according to the possibility of systematization. In my case, not only was my mandate as head of the department terminated, which is also foreseen in this case, when the mandate of the head of the department is terminated, but the above actions were not taken; I was neither called, nor was I offered a job, but I was immediately dismissed from the State Police", - recalls the former official.

Rumano won the case in the Supreme Court, which gave him the right, found the decision of former minister Tahiri illegal and also awarded him a salary until the end of his mandate, in January 2016. But, despite this decision, at the moment when she asked for a warrant to be issued, the State Police refused.

"On November 20, 2015, I submitted a request to the Police Directorate, reminding them that on January 5, my term of residence expired according to the mandate. I requested the issuance of a legal order for my removal from the State Police and requested financial treatment as an officer of the State Police. They did not agree. I also addressed the Minister of the Interior and I did not find a solution", she says.

"After that I opened another trial, asking for a legal order of release, as I found it impossible for them to be available to return me to the police."

In the Second Degree, Mrs. Rumano won after eight open hearings, with a decision from the latter that the State Police should issue an order of release and payment of financial obligations.

"The Supreme Court was asked by the police not to implement the decision of the Court of Appeal, on the grounds that the implementation of this decision constituted a dangerous precedent", says Rumano to INA MEDIA, which received the answer from this court that "the case was already tried" and she had no rights.

In an official response to INA MEDIA, the State Police admits that from 2013 until the publication of the article, 783 police officers have been dismissed, of which 197 are middle-level and managerial and 586 police officers are at the executive level. .

"For the same period of time, it turns out that four general directors have been changed, Artan Didi, Haki ?ako, Ardi Veliu and Gladis Nano. The climax was reached with Haki Çako, who during his tenure was suspended from office as a suspect for abuse of office for the IMSI Catcher scandal, brought to Albania after a bilateral agreement between the Albanian and Italian governments.

The documents available to INA MEDIA show that this measure of personal security remained in force for only 10 days, being annulled by the Appeal. Against Chako's insistence that the device, which tracked Imeis of mobile phones, was not used in Albania, the prosecution found data showing that in at least two cases the vehicle with the IMSI Catcher was in the possession of the policeman Entiol Xhelili (also now removed from Albania). The investigation was suspended for the number one of the police and some subordinates and continues to have this status pending letters from Italian justice.

Muhamet Rrumbullaku, the current director of the State Police, passed from the Police Supervision Agency, in charge of the blue uniforms. In AMP he was replaced by Veliu, who directs not only AMP, but also the vetting process in the ranks of the police.

From an observation of INA MEDIA on the website www.kjv.al for the findings of the External Evaluation Commission for the decisions that should have been made public, these decisions could not be accessed. On the amp.gov.al website, in the "Police vetting" section, only one decision dated May 26, 2023 is published, while the notices for the vetting session are inaccessible, as it says: "This section does not exist ".

As an institution that inspects the police, AMP is headed by Ardi Veliu, who according to his Curriculum Vitae, published on the official website, it turns out that he returned to the police after 2013, 7 years after serving in the Municipal Police of Vlora. He was catapulted to several local directorates, until 10 days before he was appointed General Director of the State Police, he received the rank of First Director.

Like the previous ones, Veliu did not complete his mandate, after many serious issues for order, such as the murder of Klodian Rasha, for which three years later the police spokesman, Gent Mullai, admitted that the police were wrong, when he said that the weapon found on a road belonged to the deceased.

"We said this based on the preliminary information we received from the police officer," Mullai declared on July 5, 2023.

However, the issue of the Glock pistol was never investigated by the Prosecution for falsifying the scene, with the aim of raising the impression that the police shot the deceased dead, as he was armed. This case is still pending.

Another scene was "destroyed" after the murder of Pjerin Xhuvan in Elbasan, on April 21, 2021. Contrary to what the former General Director, Veliu, stated immediately after the murder, that no evidence of vote-buying was found at the scene, Arjan Hoxha, one of the self-proclaimed vote protection volunteers, insisted that the person they blocked in a vehicle (driven by Mehmet Greca) had a list of names.

The prosecution and the court confirmed this testimony and during the security measure against six officers, two of them deputy directors, accusations of abuse of office were raised. The investigation proved that the General Director had not told the truth, not only about the electoral crime, but also about the inaction of the police, which, despite being faced with a denunciation, did not act and did not accompany the parties, among them the accused, Greca .

"We found 5 sheets with lists of names and IDs, 17 format sheets, copies of identity cards and biometric passports, 5 copiers, a patronage form with the name Met Dafllaku", - it is mentioned in the decision, exactly the opposite of what Director Veliu insisted.

However, he now heads the Police Oversight Agency, as the institution that checks illegalities and ethics in the State Police.

Prominent problems in internal communication. The officers are betrayed
In an exclusive interview for INA MEDIA and under the conditions of anonymity, a police officer confesses how he was left in the mud by his superiors. It shows how many of them are afraid to dump data into MEMEX, otherwise known as the Criminal Information Management System for secret data on any criminal suspects. The officer serves in Elbasan and accuses that the policemen were afraid to write there about the criminal groups, since, according to him, several times SK2 information got out of the police. This has put them in positions of danger.

The officer begins his testimony, saying that he remembers a case in which he received information about the wanted citizen, Talo Çela.

"The information in question had to do with the exact location of this wanted person, the people who accompanied him, where he was staying, the type of vehicle, the license plate of the vehicle and photos of the vehicle. This information from my side was not given to MEMEX and this information went directly to the head of the State Police, Ardi Veliu. While we, the people dedicated to the fight against crime, were waiting for some quick movement in order to catch the wanted person, we never received any answer or knowledge."

He regretfully states that, if the information had been used in real time, it would have been followed by other information on Talo Çela's movements, which could have resulted in his arrest; but this is not an isolated problem.

A document from 2021, which INA MEDIA has, lists other equally serious problems, such as withholding information from superiors.

"For serious events, deputy directors and their subordinates do not inform the sectors and central directorates in real time according to the lines. Information is often obtained from the media or social networks. The initiation of "Coverup Investigation" operations is initiated on the basis of incorrect information. This phenomenon in many cases has led to the termination of Covering Operations, which, in addition to the high risk of the police officer, are also associated with significant financial costs. The information received from the DVPs for the approval of preventive interceptions do not comply with the requirements of Law No. 69/2017. In the preventive interceptions, in many cases it results that the telephone numbers for the subjects are not active", - it is mentioned in the document, which shows the unresolved problems in the police.

Even RENEA, with suspicions of deconspiracies

AT, (the officer's name and initials have been changed to protect his identity), was one of those young officers who could have had a future in the State Police. After a short time as a police officer of the Tirana Eagle, the officer, inspired by the order and safety of citizens' lives, competed and became part of the elite RENEA department, but his career did not last long. Two consecutive operations, where he saw a reality different from his passion for the law, as well as suspicions that the officers are being betrayed from within the ranks, led him to irrevocably resign from the State Police.

It was the year 2020, when RENEA was ordered to suddenly control the businesses of Ervis Martinaj, at that time an unpunished and powerful name. AT, they had learned that, when RENEA enters for checks and for the capture of dangerous persons, the principle of security, which is applied, is to stretch the boat and handcuff anyone. This was the standard that the young policeman was following that day, when armed and masked, the occasion led him to order Ervis Martinaj to sit on the ground himself.

When the special forces officer encountered opposition, he reacted by stretching him with force and at one point his comrades saw, when in the action above he slapped the known as the king of gambling, but what AT saw, little minutes later he demolished it professionally. He noticed some of his superiors, consoling Ervis Martinaj, reassuring him with the words: "Don't be upset."

Under anonymity, friends of AT, officers in RENEA, talk to INA MEDIA about the breaking point of the former policeman, who now serves as a professor in a faculty.

"After this moment, we continued the checks and noticed the GM, stunned by the readiness scene of some superiors. He then gathered us and declared: "I will leave the police." This police is not what I wanted".

Rumors had long been buzzing among the policemen of the special department, whether or not they were betrayed by their own ranks or by whom. With the suspicions that they were de-conspired, the failed actions over the years returned RENEA without the wanted Gëzim Çela, former police officer, suspected trafficker, Talo Çela, Klement Balili and Ervis Martinaj.

One of the veteran operatives in RENEA adds: "The first time, when we arrived for a flash check in Fushë Kuqe, it was after information that a mayor from the north of the country had been beaten there. He had gambled and lost a lot. A briefing was held and we left. We neutralized and kept the customers lying down as well. There we found luxury cars and keys in the frame. Later we learned that Bajrat had been there and had left before we arrived. We realized that someone had announced and everyone had run away. We took Ervis Martinaj to the local police together with the armored vehicle and then he came out", - the officer recalls the incident three years ago.

Some with luxury vehicles, some with scrap metal, the abusive spending does not stop

In the documents available to INA MEDIA, it appears that the issue of vehicles for the police is actually a repeated story. In one of the audits ordered by the former General Director of the Police, Gladis Nano, it is observed how the police move with rented vehicles and for each additional kilometer, 0.5 euro/km is billed. The damage caused to the state amounts to 1,877,425 euros.

"In Tirana, it is established that 48 vehicles, which were taken on operational lease, according to contract no. 17/4, dated 19.06.2017, result in exceeding the mileage limits in the amount of 3,754,850 km, compared to the limits defined in point 7.7 of Contract no. 17/4, date 19.06.2017.

For exceeding the kilometers, based on the offer form, each additional kilometer realized will be billed at 0.5 euro/km, therefore an economic damage has been caused to the state budget in the amount of 1,877,425 euro", - it is mentioned in the audit, which it has not yet become part of the investigative files.

But, while the State Police pays staggering figures for patrol vehicles and high-ranking officials, the RENEA department is still left with adapted vehicles.

Under the conditions of anonymity, the officer tells how the police elite was also affected, to the extent that even the tools for actions were adjusted. The means were delivered, at the time when the Ministry of the Interior was led by Sandër Lleshaj and the General Director of the Police was Mr. Ardi Veliu.

"RENEA today goes to the scene with Ford Transit, with high passability, but which were not designed for passengers. They were cargo vans. We call each other potato vans, which sit next to each other", - explains the officer to INA MEDIA; but, when he and his colleagues raised this issue with their superiors, he says they received the answer: "Oh, these tools, or walk, stay at the pine tree", a euphemism, which meant the former tree in front of the Ministry of the Interior, below the to which the dismissed officers were waiting to be reinstated.

Is there a solution?

In emigration, as a former officer, who still loves the police force, Munyr Muça says that there is a need for deep interventions, starting with the actual control of blue uniforms and continuing with reducing the volume of officers' activities. of the police.

"The police check wrong parking, illegal constructions, water tanks, music in bars. You can imagine how much time and energy is wasted with these problems. Cops deal with volume issues, not criminality. The control of the territory for drugs cannot be done only by a Vaqarri inspector, for example. It is impossible to leave it only to the inspector of the area".

Enumerating the problems, Muça considers the lack of real investigations as a problem.

"How many cases do you have, that they rush and collect police? I find one case, that a head of the police station or a director of one of them was investigated, so that he was penalized. Only commanders and those with non-leadership ranks are penalized. Find me an inspector, who has been promoted; one of the best, who, after discovering a crime, gave him a rank, decorated him...", former commissioner Muça asks rhetorically.

Klodian Xhaferri, who graduated in Turkey and joined the ranks of the police after 2013, thinks the same. His career lasted a little. He insists to INA MEDIA that he left the police, fleeing abroad and that there are not a few who have been disappointed.

"It is an expression that the chiefs of the police station often use: "I know!". And the superior has full power to the subordinate, to the Judicial Police officer, who depends on him and it happens like this: by order of the boss, when he is to be arrested, he is not arrested, when he should not be arrested, he is arrested. The head of the police station has full power, because they have warm arms, to give orders", says Xhaferri flatly.

He explains to INA MEDIA that the conflict with his superiors started because he refused to make an arrest without procedure.

"But the rule is that the officer must communicate with the prosecutor when the detention procedure is done. In fact, the detention is done by order or according to the wishes of the head of the police station. I had a case of breaking into a house, or stealing a package of coffee, or stealing a can of energy drink, when the boss said: "Arrest it" and, at the moment this argument came out, I communicated with the prosecutor and this is where my problems started. the debates. Because the police officer has nowhere to raise the problem, when he has no support. Your problem is not heard anywhere and you will automatically have collision. In these circumstances, when you break the lines, you transfer. I handed in my resignation letter and ran away from Albania disappointed", - underlines the former police officer.

Over the years, the reforms have been many, the movements among the leading ranks even more numerous, often violating the State Police Law and doing favors by allocating multiple ranks to the political favorites; the contracts for the tools and equipment of the Forces have been numerous, often with violations of the law and investigative files, which have produced sensational scandals, but the life of the ordinary police officer has only become more difficult, showing that the value of effort, of career of the latter in the eyes of superiors is very low./ Investigative Network Albania