FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The law has been toughened and punishes domestic homicide with up to life imprisonment, and where specialist services at the local level should provide assistance to survivors, there are still unmet challenges. One of them, employment of women.
Judge Adriatik Bocaj, who has announced hundreds of protection orders, gave statistics in the "Talk to Anila Hoxha" podcast this Saturday on Top Albania Radio.
" Domestic violence has to do with this, it doesn't depend on where you come from, who you are, what education you have, what status you have, whether you have money, you don't have money, poor, and so on. Domestic violence exists there. It is between two people, between parents-children, husband-wife and all. We have had cases of deputies in the parliament who have used violence against their spouses. In these cases we speak without names. The names exist in the court, it is the decisions that are reflected. At the time the protection order was issued, they were members of the Parliament of Albania. In one case he even told me: I am a deputy - and I told him - even then that you are a deputy. The law is equal for all. If it is proven that you have used violence against your wife, the law will be applied like everyone else. And 'de facto' the immediate order within 24 hours was given. But the biggest surprise was that at the confirmation hearing, the woman comes and asks that the immediate protection order not be granted because we are regulated. There is no more violence ", reveals judge Bocaj.
Asked by journalist Anila Hoxha if MPs have immunity even when they commit domestic violence, he clarified that: " This law goes beyond what we call immunity. We don't care if you have immunity or not. The law does not exclude it. In cases where there are no witnesses, when there is no other evidence, then I follow a practice of external examination of the victim, I give the protection order even with my own conviction even if there is no obvious evidence, but from the explanations of the parties and the way they speak and get angry in the court session creates the belief that there is violence and we give the protection order".
According to the judge, Adriatik Bocaj, this year alone, 2327 women have received immediate protection orders from the police. But while the judges give decisions that then lead to the involvement of the victim in the criminal trial mechanism, the women withdraw. The reason why this does not happen is explained by the judge.
" Women are usually tied economically by the income that the man makes and this is one of the reasons why they withdraw, in the case where there is violence. Or we have other cases that stimulate due to the lack of income to benefit from income and to benefit from the income that the municipality of Tirana has made available, which is 90 thousand old lek per person. Usually this is the vulnerable part. The vulnerable part always uses this to get this income ".
In his 30-year career, there is one event that the judge remembers as it unfortunately ended in the murder of the raped woman, despite having been provided with a protection order.
"It is a case in the suburbs of Tirana. The woman comes to court for a protection order. She is raped by an alcoholic man. He does not work, who throughout his life has practiced physical violence in addition to psychological violence. Despite the many pressures she explained to me in the hearing of the husband's people that they put on her and the children, she was determined for the protection order. And the court granted it for one year. It stuck in my mind because it is an incredibly difficult judgement. Both sides claimed violence against each other. The court decided to issue a protection order for both of them because one lived on the second floor, one on the first floor. But what was the painful moment. Because those of us who deal with this work, the first thing we look at is when such events happen, we say "watch this protection order as I gave it". The first thing I look at is "have I given it right or are there any shortcomings". It seeks to answer a question "why don't those who have the duty to implement this decision implement it?" ".
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