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Urgent campaigns / Urgent Interventions / Albania / 2003 / January

Albania: Albania: death in custody of Mr. Gazment Tahirllari as a result of beatings by the police

Case ALB 200103
Torture / Extrajudicial killing / Impunity

The International Secretariat of OMCT requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Albania.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Albanian Human Rights Group of the death in custody of Mr. Gazment Tahirllari as a result of beatings by the police in Albania.

According to the information received, on January 3rd, 2003, Mr. Tahirllari was asked by members of the Albanian Police to follow them to the police station after they had received a complaint from his wife that he had been battering her.

Following Gazment Tahirllari's refusal to follow them, the officers reportedly began to beat him, using hard objects to hit him on his head and body. According to family members who witnessed the scene, the beatings continued for several minutes until the victim had lost consciousness and fell to the ground. A police van took him to the district hospital where the attempts to save his life proved futile.

Although the injuries to Gazment Tahirllari’s body were readily visible, the hospital forensics’ first statements were that the cause of death of was excessive use of alcohol and his death file read “Alcoholic acute intoxication coma and undefined trauma.” The members of Gazment Tahirllari’s family were only allowed to see him one day after his death, after police forces had left the hospital. The severe injuries were also confirmed by relatives of the victim who observed severe damage to his skull, face and limbs.

The International Secretariat of OMCT is gravely concerned by the report of the death of Mr. Gazment Tahirllari, which has likely resulted from the alleged beating to which he was subjected by members of the Albanian Police. OMCT calls on the authorites to launch a prompt and impartial investigation into these events in order to find those responsible, bring them to justice and provide adequate reparation to the members of Gazment Tahirllari's family for their loss.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Albania urging them to:

i. guarantee an immediate investigation into the circumstances and causes of Mr. Gazment Tahirllari's death, identify those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided by law;
ii. guarantee adequate reparation to Mr. Gazment Tahirllari's family;
iii. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with international human rights standards.

Addresses

· President Alfred Moisiu, e-mail: presec@presec.tirana.al
· Atrur Metani, legal adviser to the President, e-mail: legal1_advisor@president.al, ametani@hotmail.com
· Ambassador Vladimir Thanati, Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva of the Republic of Albania, Fax: 0041 22 738 81 56, e-mail: mission.albania@ties.itu.int.

Please also write to the embassies of Albania in your respective country.

Geneva, January 20th, 2003

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

Properties

Date: January 20, 2003
Activity: Urgent campaigns
Type: Urgent Interventions
Country: Albania

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