The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published today the report on its visit to Albania in February 2017, together with the response of the Albanian authorities.
The vast majority of detained persons interviewed by the CPT’s delegation indicated that they had been treated correctly by the police, and the delegation received only a small number of allegations of recent physical ill-treatment by police officers (such as excessive use of force at the time of apprehension or slaps/punches during police questioning). Overall, the information gathered during the visit suggests that a positive trend has emerged as compared to the situation found during the previous visit in 2014. However, several persons claimed that they had been severely ill-treated by one particular police officer at Durres Police Station. Following an urgent request made by the CPT, the Albanian authorities initiated criminal and disciplinary investigations against the police officer concerned.
The CPT welcomes the continued efforts made by the Albanian authorities to improve material conditions of detention in police establishments. Indeed, in most of the police detention facilities visited (namely, at Tirana Regional Police Directorate and Durres, Gjirokastra, Korca and Vlora Police Stations), material conditions were on the whole adequate. However, conditions remained very poor at Tirana Police Stations Nos. 1 and 3 and Saranda Police Station (dilapidated cells with extremely limited access to natural light, dim artificial lighting and poor ventilation).
