20
May 2020
NEWS
UN Concerned About Albanian Deportations of Turkish ‘Gulenists’ United Nations human rights officials expressed concern about the Albanian authorities’ treatment of two Turks wanted by Ankara, one of whom was rapidly expelled while the other awaits deportation in custody.
Albanian ‘Backroom Deal’ on Justice Reform Alarms US, EU Albania’s most important Western partners have condemned what they clearly suspect are moves to undermine and water down the justice reform programme agreed in 2016 – which they have sponsored. GJERGJ EREBARA | BIRN | TIRANA
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Alleged Gulenist Selami Simsek in Court in Tirana. Photo: LSA
GJERGJ EREBARA | BIRN | TIRANA
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ive United Nations human rights officials have sent a letter to the government of Albania to raise the cases of Harun Celik, a Turkish citizen who was deported from Albania to Turkey in January, and Selami Simsek, who is currently awaiting deportation in a closed migrant centre. Both men are alleged by Turkish authorities to be members of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen’s movement, which Ankara alleges is a terrorist organisation responsible for a failed coup plot in Turkey in 2016. The letter from the UN officials, which was published on Tuesday in Albanian media but written on March 20, warned that Simsek’s rights could be violated if he is sent to Turkey. It says that Simsek “is likely to face detention, prosecution and, potentially, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, for his perceived or imputed affiliation to the Hizmet/Gulen movement”. Simsek was initially arrested at Tirana Airport and served time for using falsified travel documents. He was released from prison on March 9, but for reasons that remain unclear, police kept him for several hours in a civilian car before transferring him to a closed centre for illegal emigrants near Tirana. His supporters claim that that several high-level government officials demanded that an immediate expulsion order be issued. His laywer, Elton Hyseni, told BIRN on Tuesday that he has not yet received any official information about the case. “We do not yet know whether his request for asylum has been accepted or not. [The authorities] havenot explained why they are keeping him in the closed migra-
tion centre,” Hyseni said. Albanian government spokesperson Endri Fuga did not reply to BIRN’s request for a comment by the time of publication. The letter from the five UN officials also questioned Albania’s deportation of Celik to Turkey. “We are equally concerned that Mr. Celik appears to have been expelled for his alleged connection to Hizmet/Gulen movement, reportedly without any due process guarantees afforded by relevant legislation,” it says. Albanian police put Celik on a plane to Istanbul on January 1 despite his pleas for asylum. He had been a teacher in a Gulen-linked school in Kazakhstan, then attempted to escape to Canada using a false visa. He was arrested in Albania in 2018 and served time for falsifying travel documents. His extradition to Turkey was described as a major human rights violation by the Albanian opposition, which linked the unusually prompt decision by police to send him to Turkey with the friendly connections between Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The letter to the Albanian government was signed by Luciano Hazan, chair-rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Leigh Toomey, vice-chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Felipe González Morales, special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, and Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
he European Union and United States embassies in Tirana have criticised an alleged new political agreement in Albania on the future of the justice system, declining to specify who made this agreement or what it entails. It comes some four years after the Albanian parliament adopted a package of changes to the constitution designed to overhaul the notoriously corrupt and inept justice system. Since then, the parties have apparently entered into negotiations on a new agreement “behind the closed doors” that could end up changing what the US and EU call the “fundamentals” of the reform. “I hope there is no truth to rumors of a back-room deal to kill justice reform in Albania,” US Ambassador Yuri Kim said on Twitter on Thursday, without elaborating. “Reform is painful, slow & imperfect, but it is necessary, making progress & must continue,” he added. Moments later, the EU Ambassador in Tirana, Luigi Soreca, joined the fray. “The implementation of #justice reform continues and must be preserved. This is not the time to reopen the discussion on its fundamentals but to enhance its efficiency and reinforcing the resources at its disposal,” he wrote. The US and EU are the two main partner countries that oversaw the agreement on justice reform after meeting years of intense resistance from local politicians. They are currently spending millions of euros on a costly moni-
toring mission. Political parties in Albania reacted to the veiled criticisms in an equally opaque way, the Prime Minister, Edi Rama, by quoting Shakespeare, and the head of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, by denying being part of any such talks. President Ilir Meta had not yet commented on the issue. “Hell is empty, all the devils are here,” PM Rama responded mysteriously, quoting Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. “Any constitutional or legal changes to justice reform by the current parliament are illegitimate. Such changes serve only those who use their power to twist and undermine the reform and to politically control and capture the justice system,” Basha said. Justice reform in Albania started in 2016, aiming to clean up the system by investigating the assets and links to crime of each judge and prosecutor, as well as aiming to create a system that was more independent of politics by reforming the way in which judges are elected. However, about four years later, the purge of corrupt officials is only partially complete while the numerous vacancies created by resignations and firings have paralyzed key parts of the system, including the Constitutional Court and the High Court. Meanwhile, a new special prosecution and court designed to fight corruption and organised crime has till now failed to meet expectations of an aggressive investigation of high-level corruption.
EU Ambassador to Tirana Luigi Soreca (front) with US Ambassador Yuri KIm (left) speaking to Olsian Cela, Albanian General Prosecutor. Photo: LSA
