During the preliminary hearing at the Special Court, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, who appeared for the first time, raised allegations of inhuman and degrading treatment.
"I want to bring to your attention an indisputable fact: a few days ago I was present at the Constitutional Court, the highest court of the country, and there I was sitting, not locked in a cage. There was no concern, no incident, no security reason. If the highest court of the Republic of Albania has assessed that I can appear before it freely and with dignity, it is meaningless for me to appear in a lower court as a threat to public order. This double standard does not stand and cannot be justified," said Veliaj.
The mayor said that “the standards of the European Court of Human Rights are clear and indisputable: placing a defendant in a cage is degrading, humiliating treatment and in direct violation of Article 3 and Article 6 of the ECHR.” “This metal structure where I am placed is not a physical detail of the courtroom, it is a direct and continuous obstacle to exercising my fundamental rights and a blatant procedural inequality,” he further emphasized.
On the same wavelength with Veliaj is former president Ilir Meta, who has been held in detention since October 21, 2024.
Through a request filed with the GJKKO by his lawyer Kujtim Cakrani, Meta says that being placed in a glass cage constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment in itself and requests immediate measures to end such treatment and guarantee the right to due process, the right to effective protection and a trial according to the best standards established by the ECHR.
"The defendant appeared in the court hearings of this case in a glass booth/metal cage, physically and visually isolated from the rest of the courtroom."
"This treatment: stigmatizes him before the court, the public and the media; creates the perception of dangerousness and "predetermined guilt"; prevents him from free, confidential and immediate communication with his lawyer; treats him as an object of security, not as a subject of law," the letter submitted to the court states.
Cakrani demands that Ilir Meta should sit next to his legal counsel, in order to have the opportunity to communicate freely and confidentially with the lawyer, as otherwise his right to effective defense would be violated.
The lawyer says that placing him in a cage treats him "as an object of security and not as a subject of law."
The lawyer asks the court to find a violation of the defendant's constitutional and conventional rights as a result of his placement in a cage/closed booth, to immediately discontinue this practice in future hearings, and most importantly, to place the defendant in the presence of his lawyer.
"Until these measures are taken to remove this violation of human dignity, committed with humiliating intent, we will not hold court hearings," the lawyer warns.
