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Albania’s interior minister resigned this afternoon amid violent protests in the country over the murder of a 25-year-old man by a police officer on Tuesday night.
“I have decided to irrevocably resign from the post of Albania’s interior minister,” Interior Minister Sander Lesay said in a statement.
“My decision comes as an individual but also as a parent who shares the pain with Chlodian Rasa’s family,” he wrote on Facebook. “I tried very hard to leave a trace of regularity in the performance of my duties,” he said.
In his post, the resigned minister also states that “he has never authorized the use of weapons in political demonstrations, has never defended a policeman or anyone who breaks the law and has never asked others to follow rules that he himself has not imposed. himself “. That is why he writes, he is now convinced that the time has come to “close this chapter as head of the Ministry of the Interior, with concern in his heart for the unjust loss of a young man’s life and calm for the fair management of the incident “.
An angry crowd has been calling for the resignation of both Interior Minister and Prime Minister Eddy Rama since yesterday. President Ilir Meta also fired at the police and the government, saying that the incident had “shocked” everyone in the country and at the same time blamed officials for the increase in police violence.
“The perpetrator … will be investigated and tried by the judicial authorities,” Rama said in a televised speech, commenting that the policeman’s reaction was irrational and that he acted with excessive use of force.
After the violent clashes that broke out in Tirana yesterday, new demonstrations followed today both in the capital and in other cities, but without incidents of the same magnitude as yesterday.
Several hundred people, mostly teenagers, gathered this afternoon in front of the Interior Ministry building. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and a witness quoted by Reuters says he saw police chasing protesters in the squares of Tirana.
The tragic incident occurred Tuesday night near the victim’s home. According to the police version, the 25-year-old died in an incident of excessive use of force by a police officer, during the night traffic ban due to the coronavirus. The police initially said that Rasa did not obey the order to stop and that he was carrying a weapon, but later the police said that the young man was unarmed.
