The Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, has addressed the High Court with a request to change the security measure “prison arrest”, requesting his immediate release and the examination of the merits of his claims, without returning the case for retrial to the lower courts. According to the defense, the court must assess whether the measure “prison arrest” continues to be necessary and proportionate, whether the procedural risks have been concretely argued and whether alternative security measures have been seriously considered.
The request also raises the issue of keeping Veliaj in a glass cage during court hearings. The defense argues that this practice violates human dignity and contradicts the principle of the presumption of innocence, demanding that he be removed from the “cage” during the course of the court proceedings. Another argument is related to the mayor’s mandate. According to the defense, Veliaj was elected for a four-year term, from June 2023 to June 2027, and the continuation of the arrest is making it practically impossible to exercise his duties. This, according to it, affects not only Veliaj’s personal freedom, but also the rights of citizens who have voted for their representative. The defense warns that returning the case for reconsideration to the lower courts would lead to further procedural delays, risking that any final decision would be issued after a significant part of the mandate had been consumed, which would make it impossible to effectively restore the rights claimed to have been violated. For these reasons, the defense requests the Supreme Court to exercise its jurisdiction, change the security measure and order the immediate release of Erion Veliaj.
