Since the adoption of the normative acts, police have fined more than 100 peaceful protesters and taken many of them to police stations, undermining citizens’ constitutional right to take part in protests.
In a video posted on social media, four people in plain clothes are seen stopping Agron Jemini, widely known as the protests’ “flag boy,” on Tuesday, November 3.
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One of them takes the large flag from his hands, while the others escort him away.
“We have orders from above,” the officers told Jemini before taking him to a police station for taking part in the peaceful protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office.
Jemini told BIRN he was released from the station several hours later with a 5,000-lek fine.
“I don’t know how many fines I’ve received; it’s been four or five so far,” he said, insisting he had done nothing to justify the penalty. “I haven’t done anything to warrant a fine.”
Two of the reports made available to BIRN show fines of 5,000 lek each. In the report dated November 3, police claim Jemini took part in blocking the road outside the Prime Minister’s Office, obstructing traffic and failing to comply with police calls to leave. The document does not describe any violent act by him.
Jemini is just one of dozens of peaceful protesters fined by police over the past week under Normative Act No. 5, approved by Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government on October 28. By midday Saturday, police had announced 105 fines totaling 525,000 lek.
Through the normative act, the government amended the law “On Assemblies,” expanding police powers to restrict protests and penalize participants, regardless of whether they have been involved in violent acts.
Civil society organizations and student groups have challenged it in the Constitutional Court, arguing that its provisions violate fundamental rights and freedoms.
In addition to the administrative penalties, police have initiated criminal proceedings against four people, including two minors. Two of those facing proceedings are activists Edison Lika and Dritan Goxhaj, who were forcibly taken to a police station on November 4 after, according to police, they failed to obey an order to produce identification documents.
Lika disputes the official account, describing the intervention as an attempt to intimidate protesters.
He told BIRN he was helping two young men leave the boulevard because they feared they might be stopped and fined as soon as they separated from the other protesters.
“We were on the boulevard, and there were two young men who were afraid to leave because police had previously stopped and fined them as soon as they left the protest. I offered to accompany them so we could leave the boulevard,” Lika told BIRN.
According to him, uniformed and plainclothes officers were stationed with vans at every exit from the boulevard and stopped them as they were leaving.
Lika says he initially objected to requests for identification, explaining to the officers that notice of the protest had been given and that no incidents had occurred during it.
He adds that the officers had known him for months as a regular participant in protests.
“I told them I didn’t have my ID with me, but I showed them a photo of it on my phone. One of them told me to let him take a photo, but I refused. Then what happened happened, and they put us in the van,” he said.
Lika says he spent more than two hours at the police station before being released with a fine. He said he would not pay it and would challenge it in court.
“Of course I won’t pay them,” he said, describing the police measures as a continuation of the absurdity and efforts to frighten people.
Violation of the right to protest
The legal changes introduced through the normative acts paved the way for mass fines and the detention of protesters at police stations, calling the constitutional right to protest into question.
Police are enforcing the penalties even as their legal basis has been challenged in the Constitutional Court.
On Thursday, November 5, the groups “Students in Protest” and “Student Revolution,” together with four civil society organizations, filed three challenges against two normative acts and a government decision approved on October 28, seeking the immediate suspension of provisions restricting the right to assemble.
According to the plaintiffs, the provisions violate the principles of equality before the law and proportionality because they do not distinguish between a temporary traffic obstruction and a deliberate, prolonged blockade.
The plaintiffs stress that the law does not take into account the specific consequences of an action, the individual protester’s role or the voluntary ending of a blockade.
The students and organizations do not dispute the state’s right to protect public order and road traffic, but argue that fines imposed without considering individual conduct and its consequences create a punitive mechanism that could discourage participation in peaceful assemblies.
While the Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on the request for suspension, police continue to issue fines, turning what the students and civil society organizations consider a mechanism for curbing protest into a tangible financial burden.
In addition to receiving repeated fines, the “flag boy,” Agron Jemini, was taken to a police station twice for no apparent reason. Jemini claims that on one occasion he was forcibly stopped after the protest ended and that police officers struck him.
“They asked for my ID card, and I didn’t have it with me. They took me in to verify my identity, and you know how their checks go — I ended up inside for eight hours,” he said.
The officers also took the large red-and-black flag he was carrying.
“I don’t know what they’ve done with it; I hope they haven’t thrown it away. But I have another flag, because we’re not there for nothing,” said Jemini, determined to continue protesting. /BIRN
