Ivi Kaso: Around 1,000 people have been detained during protests, most allege mistreatment by police

Democratic Party MP Ivi Kaso has accused the State Police of using excessive force against protesters during student demonstrations. Speaking on the “Prime News24” program, he said serious cases of violence had been documented, both during citizens’ detention and after they were taken to police stations.

According to Kaso, the police structures have failed to fulfill their duty to ensure that peaceful demonstrations can take place. He stressed that even when sporadic incidents of violence occur, intervention must be carried out using proportionate means and by trained officers.

“Shocking cases have been identified for public opinion. The police have been and remain entirely outside their mission of guaranteeing demonstrations, and even if there are sporadic instances of violence, they must respond using the proportionate means provided for by law, through police officers trained for that task,” Kaso declared.

He also alleged that during interventions against protesters, instructions had been given not to show them any leniency.

The MP announced that the Democratic Party has set up a working group that is collecting and verifying cases of detention, as well as complaints of violence by police officers.

“We have a working group at the protests that collects the cases. We have dealt with more than 500 cases of detained people. There were around 1,000 detainees. Some were released at the outset, while others were released by the court. The vast majority have left pre-trial detention,” he said.

Kaso said that most of the detained people whose cases have been reviewed by the working group stated that they had been physically assaulted while being taken into custody and during their stay at police stations.

Another serious allegation he raised concerns the use of a space inside the Ministry of Education to assault protesters before they were taken to a police station.

“Even in a room at the Ministry of Education, one space was turned into a Gestapo-style treatment room, where the detainees who were apprehended on Durrës Street were taken. They were assaulted there and then taken to police stations,” Kaso declared.

The Democratic MP called for complaints of violence and mistreatment to be collected, documented and subjected to verification by the responsible institutions.