“Out of USD 1 billion, only 50 million will be returned. The rest is in foreign banks” The British newspaper “Financial Times” publishes information from the secret report of the English company page 19

By Enton Abilekaj As of yesterday, no criminal has any reason to fear the police. It does not seem like news, because things have very rarely been different, but yesterday was the day the Minister of Public Order himself confirmed it. He declared that the victim of Wednesday evening had to be killed, because he had committed many crimes and was wanted by the police. Indeed, the minister was so firm in what he was saying that it seemed he would propose to the President that the killers be decorated. The crime that alarmed all of Tirana and

Gjinushi is rising, but the DP is still in first place Tirana and was committed near a café frequented even by colleagues of Poçi, seems to have been nothing more than a burden lifted from the minister’s shoulders, a crime that had to happen. Perhaps it is normal for him to react this way, given that all 10 police lightning raids to capture criminals have failed. But it does not sound very reassuring for the highest representative of law enforcement to call for applause over a crime of this scale, which casts serious doubt on security in the capital. In fact, this is frightening. Because with this statement the Minister of Public Order encourages settling scores without state intervention, but above all, he admits that the State does not exist and that criminals can do whatever they want, even in the center of its influence. No one can deny that the victim of three days ago was a regular patron of Tirana’s busiest cafés, at precisely the time he was wanted by the police and when the Prime Minister had ordered the arrest of all wanted persons. He had often been in the same café as police officers and people whom the law has granted immunity, but whom the police could not protect at all when the former wanted man was in the same café as them. Indeed, a police officer, subject to the same lack of immunity as ordinary citizens, felt it was a matter of survival to report him and to go beyond the permissible superficiality of his luxury car. This was the situation that erupted in gunfire at 20:15 on Wednesday. And after what the Minister said, this situation will continue to worsen, because criminals are free to kill and be killed whenever and wherever they want, while the State takes stock and calls for applause. People, instead of Order, have to endure statements that decide who is in the right, the killer or the victim. Instead of security, people hear the war cries of customary warriors who cannot be caught by the modern police; instead of peace, they hear gunshots at the hour when they should be enjoying themselves; instead of optimism, they get news that the police have carried out 10 operations and caught no criminals. Meanwhile, the criminals, armed, with mobile phones on one side of their backside and revolvers on the other, get out of luxury cars to enter the most expensive cafés and spend more than all the other customers combined, who tremble nearby as they watch the faces of the killers flexing their muscles while awaiting some new “adventure.”