EXCLUSIVE/ Salianji speaks from the cell: 7 months of isolation between heavy-bolted gates and lights on a schedule

For 7 months, he says he has only seen the gray color of concrete, an electric light, but even that one on a schedule, and he hears gates opening and closing heavily with iron latches. 

This is how former MP Ervin Salianji describes isolation, in an EXCLUSIVE interview for POLITIKO.AL, who has been serving his sentence in Fier Prison since September of this month, a punishment which he considers politically motivated and revenge by the majority due to his continuous denunciations of the government and ministers.

He emphasizes at the beginning that 'the deprivation of freedom is not something you can grasp in your mind when you have it, but you feel it in your pores when it happens'. 

" Yes, it's been 7 months, seven months between the walls and doors, the bars that separate the lights from the clock, the gates with heavy locks, and everywhere you turn, you see the gray of the concrete.
The deprivation of freedom is not something you can grasp in your mind when you have it, but you feel it in your pores when it happens. That is why it is written and defined by law that the deprivation of freedom is a deprivation of one of the most essential human rights.
Isolation is an extreme form of punishment, undertaken mainly for serious criminal offenses, for those who have killed, unjustly endangered human life, and other heinous crimes. In addition to the extreme isolation, the feeling of extreme injustice is also felt. In my case, public opinion, as well as I myself, still do not know what crime I was convicted of. I reflect for a long time on this absurdity, and I know that this reflection is also part of my victory.
This is because with my imprisonment, an attempt was made to a wall of fear was erected for others, so that no one would dare to close, lock and crush with their teeth the truth of Albania and crime, otherwise the powerful crime would grind it down. This was and is the purpose of the punishment, I know this. Just as I know that precisely with my imprisonment, those who wanted to suppress the truth are faced with the opposite. Today, more than yesterday in freedom, Albanians who follow politics know this injustice like the light of the sun.
It remains that the sentence was carried out without law, without an independent and impartial court as provided for by the Constitution, and even worse with a witness proven to have been bought by senior state police leaders, with the order of Fatmir Xhafaj and the blessing and later intervention of Edi Rama, with a court decision that, if you read it, is a complete break from what Rama has said in public from the first day of the scandal's publication to the threats in parliament or press conferences. No matter how you look at the process that was carried out against me, it is a legal catastrophe, a judicial disgrace ," says Salianji.

He reiterates and expresses his belief that the criminal offense he was convicted of is entirely politically motivated. 

"In Albania, it is said that the greatest tragedy lasts three days, and this short memory can only be of value to one person, the one who takes power to oppress 3 million people with the hoof of rape.
I will say with permanent emphasis that the criminal offense with which I was accused and convicted is entirely politically motivated.

"So, I am not in prison because I have benefited, abused, stolen or damaged the interests of society and the public interest, but for the opposite, because I have protected the public interest. I am in prison because I denounced the facilitation of drug trafficking by the former Minister of the Interior and the protection he provided to a person sentenced to 7.4 years in prison in Italy for international drug trafficking. On the day of my denunciation, almost 10 years after the sentence was handed down, Agron Xhafaj surrendered to Italy to repay what he was owed from the protection he enjoyed from his brother," says Salianji from his cell. 

He adds that of all the denunciations he has made, the 'Babale' case has been the most effective. 

"Of the hundreds of denunciations I have made, this one has been the most effective. Within a day, it was proven, and society benefited because an international drug trafficker, arrested in an operation in which the American DEA also participated, remained at large. After my denunciation, he was handed over to prison, and a few days later, his own brother who was providing him with protection in his position as Minister of the Interior, in a terrible conflict of interest, resigned from his position.
The sentence against me, for this offense, is the first given in Albania, it is unprecedented. Which makes it entirely political.

Like any political prisoner, these months have been a difficult experience, due to the special conditions related to the removal of the deputy's mandate, the removal of freedom, the ban on running for the May 11 elections, all because I am an opponent of what is increasingly known as the Edi Rama regime, because I have defeated them in several battles and electoral areas where I have been a leader.
In addition to the concern of unjust isolation and surrender to prison without reason, I have felt and feel the great power of solidarity from citizens, the media, civil society, the political class. This has motivated me more to hope and work for CHANGE, for a society with justice.
I have been and am in deep reflection on everything that happens on the political scene and on the opportunities that citizens should have to restore trust" , says Salianji. 

CONTINUES...

Prepared by Suela Gjidede