Berisha: I informed the anti-torture committee about the public torture of Ilir Meta

Leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has made a detailed presentation of his discussions during his visit to Strasbourg, where he informed the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee about the alarming situation in Albanian prisons and police stations.

He also shared his concern about the unjustified sentences against opposition leaders, mentioning the case of Ilir Meta, who, according to Berisha, is the victim of "public torture" by the government.

Full speech:

I informed the distinguished audience of parliamentarians from all over Europe that Edi Rama arrested, or put on criminal trial, the three leaders of the main opposition parties in the election year and stripped the mandates of three others, keeps them under house arrest or keeps them in prison.

There is no second country like Albania in these violations.

Albania surpassed Lukashenko's Belarus and was somewhere on par with a country like Tunisia or worse.

In these meetings, I gave a brief history of the cannabisization of Albania, which laid the foundations of the narco-state.

Albania's opening to cocaine.

The merger into a joint venture of the state with drugs and crime.

Decision-making at all levels of organized crime in Albania.

These were the main theses that I presented there, substantiated with documents, and which I can say were shocking to the esteemed audience.

Of course, the impact and receptivity of this presentation was very positive.

A significant number of members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe directly expressed their commitment to come as observers to the upcoming parliamentary elections.

I had a special meeting at the anti-torture committee. It is the only committee of its kind, with strong ties to other institutions. I informed him about the dramatic situation of prisons and not only prisons, about the torture that is practiced in police stations, in cells. About the series of deaths of young Albanians like never before with the greatest potential poisoned by drugs.

For the terrible fines that prisoners pay of up to 2 thousand euros to have the most minimal conditions.

Particular attention was paid here to the public torture they inflicted on the former president, former prime minister, and former speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

I informed these gentlemen that Albanians have definitively lost the principle of the presumption of innocence, since in their prisons, 67 percent are pre-trial detainees. There is no second place in the world. From 15-20 percent which is the inflated norm, here it is 67 percent and this did not exist even in the communist dictatorship.

I think this was a very valuable, very useful meeting with the anti-torture committee.