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OPINEWS

The missing spectacle of handcuffs

Politiko 2025-02-11 16:43:50

The missing spectacle of handcuffs

By Lutfi Dervishi
Last night's discussion on the screens about the mayor began by commenting on the moment of the arrest, noting how beautiful it was and bringing to attention the precedents. The arrest of the mayor of the capital was completely different.
If it were not for a television camera that seems random, the arrest of Erion Veliaj would be filled with conspiracy.
What we saw is in complete contrast to the way in which former President Meta was arrested. Police officers in civilian clothes accompany the mayor in the car without excessive presence, without handcuffs, without show.
The operation was carried out without dramatic scenes and without gestures that serve more for spectacle than justice.
In the past, the arrest of well-known political and public figures has been accompanied by careful but ugly direction for the cameras.
Former President Ilir Meta, who was stopped on the street by special forces, hooded, violently and with perfect media direction, as is used for drug hooligans somewhere.
More disgusting than the way the action was executed was the justification that "the police have an arrest warrant in hand and do not choose how and where to carry out the execution".
In both cases, after receiving the prosecutor's order, the head of the operation drafts the scenario of how to act. In yesterday's case, the message was clear: execution in the office, without fuss, without cameras.
Neither Prof. Jamarbër Malltezi at the airport, nor the former governor who later received acquittal and compensation from the court, nor former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri, when he left the court in handcuffs, while the cameras broadcast his every step towards the police car, did not escape the spectacle of the cameras.
These cases are examples that show how justice dances tango with spectacle. Instead of a normal process, the public is bombarded with images that resemble more a political "reality show" than a functioning legal state. And consequently, instead of discussing the essence, the form is discussed.
There is no question that the public has the right to be informed about the arrest of high-ranking officials, but without turning the process into a spectacle directed by political interests.
Regardless of the charges, every arrested person has the right to fair and equal treatment before the law.
There cannot be two standards: one for some and another for others.
In the case of Veliaj, the police did their job without fuss. Is this a new beginning or simply an exception to the rule so far? The next arrest will show us this.

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