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Businessman Artur Shehu breaks his silence: I am a long-time land owner in Zvërnec, I don't know the investors at all

Albanian businessman Artur Shehu spoke on the Opinion show...

Wrong parking in handcuffs, corruption in freedom!

2026-02-13 15:18:00, Opinione Grigels Muçollari

As I listen to the prime minister criticizing the justice system for the high level of pre-trial detention, but also to analysts echoing this criticism, the questions that naturally arise are:
Wasn't Rama himself the one who demanded prison for illegal energy connections?
Prison for water.
Wasn't it his government that toughened the penalties for illegal construction, down to roofs erected without authorization?

Wasn't there talk of prison for violating administrative measures during the pandemic?
And finally, wasn't double parking also criminalized as a criminal offense?
As for the protesters demanding punishment for government corruption, isn't it Rama who is demanding prison?

For years, the recipe has been the same: harsher penalties for minor offenses, rhetoric of force and submission.
The word prison has come out of Edi Rama's mouth more than any guard.

Now we find that he complains that he was overcharged, abused. But he has no regrets about the prisons he himself filled.
A culture of punishment was built that mainly affected ordinary citizens. Prison was used as a symbol of authority and as a means of pressure for submission, through fear.

But today, when criminal cases and security measures approach the highest levels of government and serious corruption, the tone changes. Suddenly, detention is seen as a problem, as an excess, as a concern for standards. Where yesterday uncompromising severity was required for the citizen, today maximum care is required for the government.

There is no equivalence between a wrongful parking and the abuse of public funds. There is no equivalence between an unauthorized roof and corruption at the highest levels of government. Citizens should not go to prison for such minor violations. While officials who abuse power should be held accountable for serious violations.

When prison is used to discipline the people and build a populist image, but is called into question when it affects those in power, this shows that the ruler has turned into an invader, that talking about governing morality would be a waste of time since not only has it long been non-existent but it has also infected social morality.

If for years prison was proclaimed the solution to every small problem, today a simple truth must be accepted: justice must be proportional for citizens and uncompromising for the highest levels, and at the same time, society has an even higher obligation to react with all the force necessary to give this principle its moral value.

If prison is required for government corruption, it is not the Code's fault, but the thief's. If it is required frequently, it is because a lot is stolen, it is not the Code's fault.