The video published in early May by journalist Flamur Vezaj, showing “crime leaders” consuming alcohol, using cell phones, and communicating freely with people outside the prison, has brought numerous reactions and inspections to penitentiary institutions in the country.
The images, which included Lul Berisha among others, raised strong doubts about the security and privileges enjoyed by the “strong” within Albanian prisons.
After the publication of this video, in recent days, checks have been increased in several prisons in the country, while almost every day the General Directorate of Prisons is reporting cases of phones being seized in prisoners’ cells.
During the last episode of the show “Ma Shqip me Flamur Vezajn”, the journalist revealed that after broadcasting the footage, he received dozens of messages, including from people suspected of being inside prisons.
According to him, some of them have complained that the publication of the video has “ruined their work,” while others have commented ironically that the prices of phones that are brought into prisons have also increased.
Flamur Vezaj: They tell me that the checks have continued every day since the publication of this video. People have written to me endlessly, even inside prisons, telling me “you ruined our work”. People have also written to me telling us to raise our prices for the increase in telephones, which are comments that seem to be made by people inside prisons because from the way they say it and when they are not identified, they say that you have raised our prices. There are also those who say that it is simply a show that the checks they do and continue as they are. How do you think this video has influenced the measures that have been taken?
Elton Qyno: Of course I think it has had an impact, since the Prisons Directorate itself reacted and accepted this scandal, that is where the reaction began. The moment it became known about the entire content of the video, those attempts to find phones in many prisons in the countries began. Some of these characters that you have shown in the video have begun to be transferred in order to not leave them any opportunity to grab phones and to create comfortable situations. Checks have been carried out in Drenova, Bradashesh and many other prisons. The moment the operational group of the prisons enters, they see it from the windows because they are from the third and fourth floors, they understand what they came for and they throw most of them out and do not mark a disciplinary measure in their sentence file so that when it comes to requesting release, they have to be in order with whom. To avoid this, they fire them. That is what Laert Haxhiu did.