The Albanian Helsinki Committee, the oldest human rights organization in Albania, has opposed the caged detention during the trial of former President Ilir Meta and former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj.
“Keeping defendants in cages in the courtroom is contrary to the law and the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights,” the AHC said in a press statement.
“The European Court of Human Rights has underlined that there is no justification for treating a person as a 'wild animal' and that security reasons can be addressed with less restrictive measures, such as increased police presence,” the human rights organization added.
Meta and Beqaj are being tried on charges of corruption and money laundering at the Special Court of First Instance against Organized Crime and Corruption (GJKKO).
The AHC was set in motion by a letter from the lawyer of former minister Ilir Beqaj, who raised concerns that his client was placed in a security cage during court hearings, initially a metal cage and later a glass cage, limiting the defendant's effective defense.
This concern by Beqaj's lawyer was also raised in the hearing, but the Court rejected it with a decision, arguing that placing him in a cage is not within its competence, but that of the General Directorate of Prisons.
AHC states that a similar request was also addressed to the Criminal Court by the lawyer of former president Ilir Meta, arguing a violation of constitutional rights and international standards for a fair trial.
Similar to the defense requests of the two VIP defendants, the Helsinki Committee considers that this practice of the Court constitutes a serious violation of domestic legislation and the standards of the European Court of Human Rights.
AHC emphasizes that according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the conduct of the court session and the maintenance of order in the courtroom are the exclusive competence of the court and not of the Prisons Directorate, while adding that restrictions on the defendant are permitted only if he obstructs the conduct of the session.
According to the AHC, this practice also contradicts the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, which in the case of Svinarenko and Slyadnev v. Russia has found that keeping defendants in cages during trial constitutes degrading treatment, violates the presumption of innocence and impedes effective communication with the defense.
AHC assesses that the automatic placement of the two defendants in a cage in the courtroom has no legal basis, contradicts the standards guaranteed in domestic legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights, and jeopardizes the fairness of the process.
"The correct implementation of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the respect of the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights elaborated in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg) are not a matter of interpretation, but an obligation for domestic authorities, including the courts," concluded the AHC./BIRN
