Gjergj Kola, the citizen who was slapped days ago by the General Director of the Traffic Police, Altin Qato, has spoken for the first time about where and how the incident happened.
In a short interview for “Syri Tv”, Kola confessed that the whole incident happened after they were honking their car horns like everyone else. According to the citizen, Qato also raped his friend who was the driver of the vehicle they were traveling with and then went to him and slapped him.
“I was returning, there was a protest. I had nothing to do with the protest, I was returning to Tirana. Then the police stopped us, we were honking like everyone else, my friend was honking, I was a passenger. A moment he tells the police to stop such and such a car, they took him, my colleague Edison Qerimin, they beat him, but they did not release the video.
They even tried to put him in the luggage, they cursed him with the dirtiest words. After beating him, he came and grabbed me, opened the door and slapped me directly. Without doing anything to them”, stressing once again that the whole event and the violence against them came for no reason, the citizen has appealed to the authorities to clarify this event and take measures.
“It just shows me the face of the state, who is this both a policeman and a gangster. Tomorrow he will put a bullet in it. Solve this issue, he has no right to slap me, without insulting him without doing anything to him. I am ashamed to go out on the street”, said Gjergj Kola, among other things.
In the afternoon of August 2, the residents of Kruja and Fushë-Kruja came out in protest and blocked the Thumanë-Kashar road axis. They wanted the opening of the secondary road and a junction to access the new highway. As a form of protest, drivers honked their car horns and one of them was spotted by Altin Qato.
In the images made public earlier on the network, the General Director of the Traffic Police, Altin Qato, was seen slapping the citizen, Gjergj Kola.
Immediately after the publication of these images, the Director General of the State Police, Major Muhamet Rrumbullaku, suspended Qaton from his post. However, this suspension did not last more than three days after, on August 5, former democratic deputy Klevis Balliu announced that Altin Qato was back in office.
“The Democratic Party condemns Qato’s return to office and demands that serious and full disciplinary measures be taken against him and any official who, in breach of duty, threatens, intimidates or hits citizens.
His return to duty, after a “healthy self-criticism” of the Narco-Police Roundtable, proves how incriminated the government is, which brings the traffic policemen to the streets of Albania to hit the citizens, who not only pay taxes for the roads, but also the salaries of the policemen”, said Balliu.
