I begin by reminding you of an anecdote from antiquity that I hope many of you may have come across in your law studies textbooks:

The fleet of a powerful king captured a pirate ship at sea and brought the chief pirate to trial before the king. There was a time when the king had absolute power ie. he was both the legislator and the judge. “By what right do you seize the sea and plunder it?” – the king asked the pirate. This one, feeling hopeless, took courage and said to him: “By the same right that you seize and plunder, but I do it with only one ship and I am called a plunderer, while you do it with a large fleet and you are called a king.”

As I hope you know, this anecdote raises a fundamental issue regarding the right. St. Augustine formulated it in the form of a question: what would a state without law be but a great band of robbers? Or another way: without the right, a band of looters would be nothing more than the embryo of a state?

I believe that there is no need to dwell on the legal, political and moral meaning of this anecdote. But I can’t stay without reminding you of our story. I am referring to Enver Hoxha’s big gang that became the state and caused crimes for almost half a century to the Albanian people with irreparable consequences, robbing them of their lives, dignity and freedom, and that, in the light of the anecdote in question, we cannot help but remember that one of the main instruments used by this gang were precisely the bodies of justice: investigators, prosecutors and judges.

Well, ladies and gentlemen of justice, they have passed 36 years since the fall of that regime and the Albanian people have risen in a mass protest that was initiated by the guards of a government oligarch who slanged a protesting citizen because his property was being looted – and all this in the passive eyes of the state police. As I understand it, my empathy towards this protester, who raised the Albanians to their feet, has its source in the fact that they continue to suffer as before under the rule of a large band of looters who with their crimes and injustices are making their country more and more compatible.

Ladies and Gentlemen of Justice, as you may have heard, the bells of this protest do not ring only for Edi Rama, the ministers, parliamentarians, rulers and his looters, they fall for you too. The question that is raised today by the people in the protests is: are you in the service of that justice that Agostini talks about since the 4th century and that is formulated in our Constitution in the form: “The law constitutes the basis and limits of the activity of the state.” or, as in the time of Enver Hoxha, are you in the service of the band of robbers who daily violate the limits of the right?

Personally, when they raised this question to me, I answered that with grace and without grace, the ship of justice continues to sail alongside and not against the ships of the robbers, that is, outside the limits of the right, even with the ever-increasing concentration of power in the hands of Edi Rama, the overcoming of this the border is becoming more and more scandalous. I expressed my arguments by raising the questions: Would this protest have happened if justice had done its job? NO, even the Zvrnec event itself would not have happened since the data on the injustices of the looters involved have been made public for years, as well as the criminal nature of this government and its clients. Also, if he did not have the ship of justice on his side, would the prime minister dare to give permission to skyscrapers and resorts for laundering drug money (according to the Aruba project) and then challenge the protesters saying that it is their duty to prove that he is the godfather? Would he dare to, in the wave of protest, violate the Constitution by pouring 4 million euros from the reserve fund to sponsor a counter-protest? No, no!  Therefore, personally, since the first day of the protest, I have called for it to be directed from the SPAK headquarters.

Well, I notice that among the protesters, especially young people, the hope and belief that you will act in the name of the right and not in the interests of the looters continues to prevail.

I would very much like to be wrong and they are right. Time will prove it. However, reminding you that justice delayed is justice denied and in respect of their hope and faith, I wanted to point out that this time, which has passed for me, has come for them today and is roaring. The historical moment in which the people are living, especially the youth in protest, will clearly define the legal, political and moral physiognomy of your actions and inactions, showing the Albanians whether the ship of Albanian justice floats within the limits of the law or outside them together with the great gang of looters.

Source: prizrenpost