3 years in prison for double parking/ Gjokutaj: Intentional error by the State Police!

Lawyer Genc Gjokutaj has reacted to the statement of the Director General of State, Ilir Proda, who said that all citizens who double park risk up to 3 years in prison. 

In a reaction on social media, Gjokutaj described the statement as a "mistake", while writing that this decision incriminates administrative violations related to incorrect or double parking and which are regulated and sanctioned by the Road Code of the Republic of Albania.

The lawyer writes, among other things, that this decision is not only a violation of the law from a formal legal point of view, but also a monstrous violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms and legal guarantees that the state must offer its citizens.

Gjoktaj's full reaction

Today, the General Director of the State Police warned, among other things, that double parking of vehicles from now on will not be considered an administrative violation but a criminal offense referred to Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania, which sanctions:

"The placing of obstacles and the stopping by any means and manner of the circulation of means of transport, whether automobile, railway, water or air, is punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to 3 (three) years."
This position of the State Police not only constitutes a deviation from the object that the provision of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of

of the Republic of Albania aims to protect but incriminates administrative violations related to incorrect or double parking and which are regulated and sanctioned by the Road Code of the Republic of Albania!
The provision of Article 293 of the aforementioned Criminal Code has as its objective the placement of obstacles such as inert materials, quantities of tires and all kinds of similar materials with the aim of blocking road axes in cases of protests, gatherings or social unrest!

In facilities that can be used for this purpose, vehicles of any type, from cars to trucks, can also be used to block road traffic, but not in the case when vehicles are parked incorrectly or in a double manner to perform urgent needs in the city!

The legislator has not without purpose included in this provision the placing of obstacles to prohibit rail, water or air traffic, so it has nothing to do with incorrect parking as an administrative violation, but with the paralyzing of traffic of any kind in cases of protests, which as always are related to the fulfillment of one or several demands by the protesters!

Treating citizens who park illegally with this provision, which deals with criminal offenses committed intentionally and with a specific purpose, is not only a violation of the law from a formal legal perspective, but also a monstrous violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms and legal guarantees that the state must offer its citizens!

Starting tomorrow, according to the Albanian Police, stopping in double parking for a health emergency or similar cases will amnesty state terror against citizens who are promised Albania's EU membership within 2030!

If the State's deliberate misguidance is tolerated by the Prosecution and Court, which should stop it at the first opportunity and will not do so, then people will exercise self-judgment, which leads to conflicts that can arise not only from reason but also from control!

The state cannot be a weapon against its citizens, but a strong shield for them when they are mistreated and imprisoned!