In a previous post I linked to a story from the Scotsman about David Brown who had been arrested on suspicion of child abuse while running an orphanage in Tirana. Yesterdays' Scotsman carried a follow up story to this piece with glimpses of life in an Albanian prison.
I was watching Top Channel last night, first the news, then Fiks Fare. According to them Tirana's citizens now have a choice not only between Rama and Olldashi, but also between Rama and Rama. A minor right-wing faction, Parti 'Balli Kombetar' , submitted papers to the election authorities registering their candidate, Akile Rama. The people on Fiks Fare got hold of the papers and sent a reporter and camera team to the address listed for Mr A Rama. After much ringing of the bell the gate was reluctantly opened by a middle-aged woman who refused to speak to the reporter and tried to close the gate on her. Back in the studio Saimiri and Doctori - the two presenters of Fiks Fare - revealed that Mr Akile Rama was 73 years old, in hospital, and did not know he was now a candidate for mayor. They also compared two documents - the papers submitted on his behalf, and a genuine document he had signed. The signatures were not even remotely similar. There was an interview with the lea
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I have also gotten to know the kids and have seen personally how they loved him so dearly. I personally know that this is a huge mistake on the part of the Albanian judiciary system as they needed to blame someone for what whatever might have happened.
Meanwhile, my hope is that that man will not parish in prison as I know that there is no one who knows how to be kind since everybody is considered guilty!
Anon, I'm not sure that he could be transferred before a verdict is reached. Maybe if he was found guilty they could do something like that.
On the other hand, if the trial and any verdict lacked credibility it would be difficult to justify keeping him in prison in the UK and he would probably have much greater rights of appeal.
Another issue that I see here is that Brown says that he knew of the abuses but he didn't tell the authorities because he was afraid they would shut the place down. I'm sorry but that sounds very phishy to me. While the police in Albania can be a disgrace, I find it appalling (sp?) that he wouldn't turn the guilty person in and let a child molester roam free. It's strange that someone used to the rule of law would completely disregard it while in Albania. There is more to the story here that we are missing.
Why isn't the UK making a fuzz about his arrest? If it were so obvious that he was innocent, I'm sure that there would be enough diplomatic pressure on Albania to release him. The Albanian govt would oblige immediately. We are not talking about Iran here, which will try to make a political statement out of everything. The Albanian govt, or judiciary for that matter, has nothing to gain from jailing Brown if he were innocent. It's not like they will win a trophy for going after foreign child molesters.
As for the difficult prison conditions, that's unfortunate but that's the same for all other prisoners. His situtation is not any worse than that of the other people there. You can't complain that your roommates don't speak English. There is nothing to do to correct that other than arresting someone who knows English and putting him in the same cell as you. After all, prison conditions for someone who's accused of child molestation are hard anywhere in the world. Other prisoners never look lightly on a pedophile and you know the rest.
With that said, I'm not going to claim that Brown is guilty. I just wanted to play devil's advocate and present a different point of view. In the end, whether he's guilty or not, he should go to trial ASAP. No matter what the crime is or how guilty you are, you should be able to go to trial in a timely manner and it's there where you can be found guilty. After all it's "innocent until proven guilty" not "guilty until proven innocent."
However to the best of my knowledge I dont believe David is himself a paedophile though. He has done a lot of good for those children and that should not go un-recognised.
Naci is in an even more unfortunate position, although is often forgotten about when this case is brought to mind. Naci has been caught in the middle of it and I hope he will be released soon.