Simon Zereci has been appointed Director General of the Republican Guard. After Ermal Onuzi’s departure in June 2025, Zereci was placed in charge of the Guard, followed by Sami Kuti and then Zereci again.
Following the amendment of the law in April allowing the appointment of the Guard’s director general without a competition, but through a direct appointment, Zereci received the appointment this Tuesday.
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At the beginning of the year, when the law stipulated that the head of the Guard had to be selected through a competition, the Interior Ministry opened the process, which failed.
Although it held the competition, the Ministry announced that none of the eight candidates who applied had been declared the winner, among them Simon Zereci.
Since 2013, Simon Zereci has held the important position of Commander of the Special Unit in the Republican Guard, while his name became known to the public when a citizen accused him of violence.
But who is Simon Zereci?
Simon Zereci’s name became known following a complaint made by Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha on July 15, 2022.
Berisha published a complaint sent to his account alleging that Zereci assaulted citizen Iris Peti in Sauk, after Guard employees were returning to their workplace following an event held by Prime Minister Edi Rama in a city in the north of the country.
According to Berisha’s complaint, the citizen had been accompanying his minor child to school when he clashed with Guard employees, and Zereci, together with four other people, struck him, leaving him seriously injured.
“A state inhumane act!
A senior Guard officer severely mistreats and sends a barber to the hospital in the presence of the child; police refuse to investigate the act of violence.
I condemn in the strongest terms the act of state violence against the citizen and the police’s indifference toward this act,” the Democratic leader wrote at the time.
Berisha’s complaint on July 15, 2022:
Hello Dr., Simon Zereci is the Commander of the Special Unit in the Republican Guard who was involved some time ago in a serious incident in the capital with a citizen, while the event was kept hidden.
He was in the company of at least five other members of the Guard when he became involved in a physical fight over trivial motives. The Guard employees were returning to their workplace after an event by Prime Minister Edi Rama in a city in the north of the country.
A barber from Sauk reported the case of violence to Police Station No. 1 in Tirana, while the incident was not reported despite the fact that the young man filed a complaint after ending up in hospital. The entire incident took place because of a disagreement over a road blockage.
The citizen was near a school accompanying his minor child when he encountered the guardsmen, with Zereci being the most active in the conflict.
Despite the complaint by citizen Iris Peti and the fact that the Guard, the police and the Police Oversight Agency were made aware, they have still not made public any concrete action to clarify the incident and shed light on it.
The incident occurred on April 22 of this year near the “Ibrahim Brahja” school in Sauk. Simon Zereci was “catapulted” into the Republican Guard in 2013, despite having been unemployed for years, and immediately rose to the important position of commanding the Special Unit.
