TIRANA, Jan. 21 – Families of four people who died on Jan. 21, 2011 during then-opposition Socialist Party’s violent anti-government protest held a commemoration ceremony, telling the media they want those responsible for the deaths of their loves one to be brought to justice.
Joined by Prime Minister Edi Rama, who led the opposition four years ago, they placed flowers where the four men died of gunshot wounds near the main government building and held a private meeting with Rama, who pledged he would continue to press the justice system to reopen the case and put those to blame for the deaths in prison.
Several National Guard officers were tried for the deaths of the unarmed protesters. None is currently in prison. Two years ago, an Albanian court acquitted two senior officers of shooting dead four opposition supporters during an anti-government protest in 2011.
That ruling was bluntly criticized by the United States, which provided assistance in the forensic investigation, and was met with outrage by Albania’s Socialist Party, then in opposition.
Prosecutors have since been unable to prove the charges against Ndrea Prendi, head of the elite Republican Guard, and Agim Llupo, a senior officer in the unit. A third officer was acquitted of concealing evidence about the Jan. 21, 2011, shootings.
Prendi and Llupo were charged with the murder of Faik Myrtaj, Hekuran Deda and Ziver Veizi; no one has been charged in the death of the fourth protester, Aleks Nika.
An investigation found that police bullets killed four men at a Socialist Party protest against alleged corruption and vote-rigging by then Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s government. Prendi and Llupo admitted firing shots in the air, but denied hitting anyone.
The opposition has accused Berisha of authorizing police to use lethal force at the protest — a claim the former prime minister rejects.
The deaths came at the end of a very violent protest, in which Socialist protesters physically attacked and wounded many unarmed police officers in front of the government building.
This week, the government decided to give a special pension to the families of the four dead.
State Minister Ermonela Felaj called on the justice system – the prosecutor’s office and the courts — to re-open the case, or they would try another “alternative mechanism that would put the justice back on track.” She did not explain what she meant
Meanwhile a group of activists protested against the current government for not doing enough to investigate the killings because the government’s smaller coalition ally is led by the same man, Ilir Meta, whose alleged corruption sparked much of the anger at the 2011 protest. He was then an ally of the then ruling Democratic Party. An Albanian court cleared Meta of all charges in the corruption case.
