Police blocked opposition rally

Police Forces Forbade the Establishment of SP Podium

Police blocked on Thursday afternoon the preparations for the closing rally of the Socialist Party. Dozens of police forces did not allow the establishment of the rally podium in front of the Premier’s Office. The largest opposition force denounced the scandal as a pressure of government not to allow the rally while police pretended that the rally platform should be set up after 24 hours. According to the Socialist Party, the permission for the establishment of the rally platform was received on June 17.

The press office close to the SP Headquarters made available to the media the documents of the State Police issung permission to the SP to organize the rally at “Dëshmorët e Kombit” Boulevard and set up the platform of the tribune. Meanwhile, police published on Thursday a declaration stating that the Socialist Party had preliminarily asked to block the boulevard up to the National Gallery of Arts.
“The permission was refused due to the possible confrontations with the DP supporters”, police explained adding that the rally permission was issued for the place from the boulevard “Nënë Tereza” to Lana River.

Meanwhile, in the boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit”, where the rally of the Socialist Party was scheduled to be held, many SP representatives arrived. They pretended in front of the media that police had exerted pressure against them threatening to accompany them to the police station if they did not apply the order. OSBE/ODIHR observers came to the scene.

Meanwhile, through an interview with “News 24”, the member of the SP chairmanship,Kastriot Islami made a summary of the incident stressing that everything was done in respect to the law by the SP.

“The Socialist Party has made a request on June 17 to hold a manifestation at ‘Dëshmorët e Kombit’ boulevard. Police should have provided its remarks within 24 hours from the date of our lodged request but they did not do such a thing. Today’s arguments are unacceptable. Police forces have started to threaten the workers who were establishing the platform and the reason is political, they have received a political order, the policemen themselves said that they are victims”, - said Islami.
With the aggravation of the situation, the deputy-director of Tirana Police, Vocaj reached the scene.

He was involved in a verbal confrontation with the member of the SP chairmanship, Fatmir Xhafaj. Vocaj insisted that the rally platform should have been established on Friday while Xhafaj restresed that the SP will guard the platform throughout the night. In a communication with the media, present during this incident,Xhafaj declared that “local police have been unmasked to the level of their chiefs. The political order harms the image of Albania as a NATO country. Police intervened by a powerful political order. The political order comes from Premier Sali Berisha. Interior Minister, Bujar Nishani does not respond to our phone calls”, - he said.