After four years of wandering through the prosecutor's office and courts, Ledion Mziu's complaint about the illegal demolition of his house on 5 Maji Street returns to SPAK, along with the hope of an investigation into senior officials of the Municipality of Tirana.
On January 19, 2022, Ledion Mziu's protest on the roof of his house on 5 Maji Street was brutally interrupted before the building was leveled by IKMT's heavy machinery to make way for the "Tirana Riverside" tower project on the banks of the Tirana river.
More than ten police officers dragged the 33-year-old from the roof and tied his hands and feet before removing him from the family's three-story home. Earlier, police had escorted Ledion's father and forcibly removed other family members.
Left homeless, the Mziu family was scattered across three different rented houses, before first his brother and then Ledioni emigrated one after the other to Italy.
But before leaving the country, Mziu decided to fight for his rights in court.
Through a lawsuit filed with SPAK, he requested an investigation for abuse of office and destruction of property against the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, his deputy, Arbjan Mazniku, and other police and Territorial Protection Inspectorate officials.
But the report ping-ponged from one office to another, without being really investigated.
In presenting the case before the court, Mziu's lawyer, Arben Llangozi, stated that SPAK transferred the case for jurisdiction to the Tirana Prosecutor's Office, which, after holding the file for two years, requested its dismissal in court.
The Tirana Court accepted the request for dismissal in March 2024, but Mziu insisted on an investigation and appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal. After a year of consideration, the Court of Appeal found that all actions taken up to that point were outside the scope of general jurisdiction and sent the file to the Special Court. On September 30, the Special Court decided to return the complaint to where it had started three years earlier, to SPAK, and ordered the conduct of investigative actions.
From Italy, where he works in a car repair shop, Ledion Mziu says that although he has wasted a lot of time waiting for justice, the decision of the Special Court has given him hope again.
"You're dragging and dragging. I've been on the streets for five years, brother," he told BIRN over the phone.
"I feel very good that finally there is a chance, at least the violations they have committed against all the residents of '5 Maji' and the looting of properties will be investigated and brought to light," Mziu added.
When questioned by BIRN, prosecutor Arben Kraja, who declared SPAK's incompetence over Mziu's complaint in 2022, did not respond until the publication of this article.
The battle for justice
The controversial “Tirana Riverside” project was born after the 2019 earthquake, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti and SON-Group on 29 hectares of land on the northern border of the capital. Originally planned to house over 3,000 people who lost their homes in the earthquake, the project was criticized as a classic example of violent urban transformation through mass evictions.
Hundreds of private houses built after the 1990s were demolished under the pretext of public interest, some of which were still unlegalized. But Ledion Mziu's house had been equipped with a certificate of ownership since 2006 and a later addition was in the process of being legalized.
Ledioni told BIRN that they found themselves faced with a fait accompli in January 2022, as decisions about their lives were made arbitrarily – without asking them and without giving them time to complain. He said they found themselves faced with a completely unilateral contract with the Municipality of Tirana, which forced them to unconditionally give up their property and rights, based solely on vague promises about the future. Mziu, who still recites the contents of the contract by heart today, refused to sign it.
He says he tried to stop the demolition by filing a complaint in court, but was faced with the arrogance of state employees who, without a decision on the demolition, carried it out by force and violence.
In the complaint submitted to the Prosecutor's Office, he insists that the entire procedure followed was illegal and not based on public interests. Through his lawyer in Court, Mziu also claimed that power was being used to support private interests and unfair benefits at the expense of the legal owners.
An administrative process launched in parallel with the criminal one has ruled in favor of Mziu in the first instance. He says that the court recognized an area of 462 square meters, despite the 303 meters that were given to them as compensation by the municipality. However, the municipality has appealed the case.
“Now I have to wait another 5 years,” says Ledioni, calling the process absurd.
He also says he is willing to return from Italy to assist criminal investigations.
"I can't wait to be called to SPAK. I have all the papers ready," said Ledioni, hoping that the architects of his house's demolition will be investigated.
"Nothing is safe here"
The decision taken on September 30 by the Special Court paves the way for the investigation of the former mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, and other senior officials of the Municipality of Tirana for the violent demolitions of houses on 5 Maji Street, more than three years after SPAK refused to register the case for jurisdictional reasons.
In addition to returning the documents to the Special Prosecution Office, the Court also orders the conduct of investigative actions. Enthusiastic about the Court's decision, Mziu told BIRN that he had paid the cost of delaying justice.
Initially, for a year, Mziu waited for justice, wandering through the doors of the court, the prosecutor's office, and the police, while he says he found himself shaken, unable to manage a car repair shop he owned.
When it became clear that the process would take a long time, he came under pressure from his parents to leave Albania.
"Every time I woke up in the morning they would say to me: 'Are you still here? You haven't left?'" Mziu recalls.
He says that he and his wife faced difficulties after emigrating to Italy and have only recently stabilized. But Mziu continues to keep his head down.
"I didn't think of leaving," he says regretfully, adding: "How can you build a life in a place where you don't even have guarantees for what should be the safest thing, your property with documents?"
"They come and take it by force without any notice. Nothing is safe here, brother," he concluded. /BIRN/
