Vetting
Ahmet Bilali, 76, has lived his entire life in Shkodra. After years of legal struggles and battles, where he was tried on forged documents, the 76-year-old is now facing an even more terrifying reality: threats to his life. Scared and abandoned by the institution that is supposed to protect him, Ahmeti seeks justice, but finds himself blocked, as he has not received the decisions he has been waiting for for more than two years.
Ahmet Bilali tells Vetting that he feels threatened: "I am threatened with murder; I am threatened that the state does not function—Now, please, don't call me names because they will come and kill me at my house."
According to lawyer Arben Llangozi: "Citizens suffer to make a reasonable decision; we don't just have one case, but we have many unreasonable cases."
Wealth on paper, certified, but he cannot plant a single square centimeter, at least not yet. His land, which should have been an opportunity to help himself and his family, has remained simply a piece of paper that cannot feed him. Complainant Ahmet Bilali says: “The property restitution agency has returned some inherited properties to me. I have them certified, mortgaged, and I do not enjoy the properties; they do not let me enjoy them.” The other party claiming the property, according to the complainant, does not have the relevant documents, currently building and enjoying someone else's labor.
Ahmet Bilali continues: "How is it possible, how could the agrarian reform be used in 1946, be used in court and the prosecution; how can it be that 2 court presidents have rejected it 3 times. It's mine, they say give me a document you have. I am certified and they don't let me enjoy the property; they even had the courage to take me to court with a forged document of the 1946 agrarian reform, which is forged."
Lawyer Arben Llangozi explains to Vetting: "It is a matter of transferring ownership by law, but if it has previously been transferred to another person, we have an expression that we use in justice; the right of ownership cannot be transferred when it has been transferred to another person. Consequently, the agrarian reform document is invalid." The elderly man is tired of 13 years of endless legal battles to return a property that he inherited and has a certificate of ownership.
Myrshit Vorpsi, president of the Property in Justice association, says: “All this long time has served only one purpose: for the owners to be dragged to the courts, where today a legal process to go through 3 levels of the judiciary, the final decision of which was called the decision of the Supreme Court. Today, as we speak, to go through the levels of the judiciary takes at least 15 years.” After many years of agony, in the end, a light of hope has shone at the end of the tunnel: a court decision that returns the property. But this light seems to be simply an illusion, because the decision has been closed for two years in the court drawer, where it seems to serve more dust than justice. Everyone expected a revival of justice, but for Ahmeti, this is another endless chapter of uncertainty, where after every light, a new darkness follows.
76-year-old Bilali explains that: “The court has decided to release my property; the judge has not disclosed the decision for two years. That she has hidden the theft from you.” Bilali denounces judge Arta Llazari, who has held him in court for 10 years, when his property is mortgaged. The trial was held on a forged Agrarian Reform document. After 10 years, the judge gives Ahmet Bilali the right, but again continues to hold him hostage, not disclosing the decision for 2 years from the decision. “In the city of Shkodra, there is a judge, Arta Llazari, who has over 100 cases that she does not set a date for; I have a case that has not been set a date for 5 years. These violations have occurred before, but the justice system has not identified them, going unnoticed,” explains lawyer Llangozi.
A delayed justice that is tiring in every cell of this elderly man who seeks nothing more than the property inherited from his grandfather. Ahmet Bilali: "All of them know that it is my land bought with gold napoleons." But even with a certificate issued by the Shkodra Cadastre, today AShk, since 2010, he only possesses it as a document, while the property continues to be held "hostage" illegally by his neighbors, while the institutions he has knocked on have not supported the 76-year-old. According to the president of the Property in Justice association,
Myrshit Vorpsi: "The lives of the owners are being played with so that the state does nothing." Waving it in his hand with pride and deep anger. After so many years of struggle, this document that he holds in his hands as a symbol of justice that never came, seems to remind the state that it is still waiting for the property.
Ahmet Bilali: “This is the certificate that the Albanian state returned to me; I have not enjoyed this property for 4 years.” The 76-year-old has tried to use that land, but due to the conflict and tensions that have accompanied it, no one dares to approach this hot zone. As he tries to make it possible to use his land, he finds himself without support. No one comes to work the plot. Bilali adds: “Bring me a tractor driver; they won’t let you; they have removed the poles; self-justification.”
Ahmeti, who has spent years knocking on every possible door, has not left any institution without informing him, without making his suffering known and without demanding justice. With every step he has taken, he has moved a heavy stone to let everyone know that his property has been robbed. He has sent complaints, he has asked for help, but he has not yet found any sign of hope. And in the meantime, what he gets is silence. Ahmet Bilali: "I reported the official land mafia; they are all dismissed." And instead of the prosecution that I reported this person, Nush Hotaj, the prosecution has dismissed the case. Blerta Hamza, the prosecution that has taken it upon itself to legalize the theft.
With irony and disappointment, the old man wonders how they can treat this issue as a once-in-a-century topic, since all this, as he says, has happened under the office of the prosecutors and the police. According to him, “The prosecutor’s office has become a servile office for the land mafia.” He has sought the help of various media groups to echo his sad story, to help find a solution.
Although there has been an awakening to recover the looted properties, for many, the state's help remains only an empty promise. With two years gone, when the world is in the same space, Ahmet Bilali will not give up and continues to seek justice, even though it is still very far away for him. But, if he has never finished his fight, for many others, what he represents is a symbol of lost battles.
Ahmet Bilali: “All the issues were supported after this. Any property that is looted is the responsibility of any institution, and what will happen is just a failure of the system.”
