By Petraq J. PALI
Part One
Memorie.al / It had been exactly 68 days that the investigator had been exercising a terrible investigation, using every kind of method to completely subdue the defendant, who was accused of forced sexual relations with a minor. He had tried and exerted himself to the maximum with all “methods” and “forms,” both of wise words and dialogue, as well as of violence and the club, but “unfortunately” he had not extracted a single word. The evidence was insufficient. The violence exercised upon him had produced no effect. This caused the district chief prosecutor herself, who was a beautiful, authoritative, very serious, and stern woman – seeing that only four days remained until the investigation deadline ended according to the laws in force and if the defendant did not break, he would emerge innocent. He would then benefit from the entire moral and material rights given to him by the constitution; therefore, she decided to take over his interrogation herself and exploit these four remaining days.
She, and the institution she led, would be completely ignored if the defendant emerged “victorious,” who was a well-known intellectual with a great reputation in the city; his social-political standing was very good. He was only 38 years old, a handsome man, tall with an athlete’s body, he was married, a father of two minor daughters. He was a mathematics teacher at the city’s gymnasium.
When his arrest occurred, which made waves; no one wanted to believe it due to his personality and social presence. Throughout the entire city, words were later commented upon however it suited anyone! The chief prosecutor had become acquainted with the file immediately after his arrest. She had studied and read it several times, even daily receiving data from the investigator as to what phase his investigation was in; in some cases, she had even sent more capable investigator specialists or those brought specifically even from Tirana, in some instances.
Seeing that the defendant had no “mind” to surrender despite the confrontation with several witnesses and new evidence which the defendant knocked down without problem, because they never told the truth but were manipulated and intrigued, he persisted even for the sake of heaven and in no way wanted to sign the minutes of the indictment, which could sentence him up to ten years, based on law 8425/4/F/dt. 13.7.’65 of the Penal Code.
The chief prosecutor, after having made the plan on how she would break the “victim,” ordered the investigator that for the remaining days; she would conduct the investigation herself. And indeed, she dedicated herself seriously to the case and was more driven by spite, because as long as she had remained in this position, such a thing had never occurred.
Her institution was a model in the republic for “subduing” defendants to accept the indictment. The forms and methods she applied had given the proper results and the respective Ministry held it as a “model” and always in first place as a district.
The chief prosecutor maintained and chose from time to time “professional” and true “craftsmen” investigators; whenever she made a request to the Ministry, the minister immediately gave the OK to the beautiful chief prosecutor, who had reached these heights thanks to the “friendship” with the new minister. As soon as the investigator heard that the chief prosecutor herself would take over the investigation of the defendant in the final days, he was beside himself, as she herself would later call him incompetent and who knows where they would exile the poor soul, but now it was too late.
Even worse, she would find the defendant in a bad physical and mental state from the “investigation” that had continued to be used upon him mainly in the last days, until even he had reached a breaking point!
Nonetheless, the investigator ordered “the toughs” to wash him and try to bring the defendant more or less to a normal state, which was on the verge of death, such that it would take years to recover. When she entered his cell, together with the two “toughs” and spoke to him, he was cornered and was surprised by the presence of the prosecutor herself.
With a harsh tone, she ordered that the defendant be released from the handcuffs and be escorted to the investigation room… where the defendant had never been. For the investigator always conducted the investigation in his cell, naturally to subdue him as quickly as possible, even though investigating there was not allowed! The chief prosecutor did not believe her eyes at the grave appearance of the defendant, whom she knew before as a prominent intellectual of the city, and when she had signed for his arrest, she was shaken, although from the circumstances that were created, she was forced to sign.
After she calmed the defendant, she removed the escorts from the “investigation” room, and with full seriousness and an all-powerful authority, she asked him about the investigation the investigator had conducted, whether he had dissatisfaction and why he had not told the truth.
– “I believe that you will tell me everything from those things I will ask you? You will tell me the whole story, how it happened to you that you are here today?! I ask you defendant, speak to me accurately, briefly and sharply. I do not want you to go on at length”!
She: – “Have you committed the rape and sexual relations upon your minor student, who accuses you? Yes? No”?
He: – “Never, not once! No”!
She: – “What forced the girl to bring out such a word about you, at a time when she did great harm to herself”?
He: – “Ask the girl for that”!
She: – “Alright. You affirm that you have not committed forced sexual relations”.
He: – “Yes, I have not committed sexual relations with her, nor with violence”.
She: – “Are you telling the truth”?
He: – “I am telling only the truth. I am telling you the truth and only the truth”!
She: – “Repeat it once more”!
He: – “I tell only the truth”.
She: – “Alright, good day”!
She: – “I am leaving you here a notebook and a pen, think it over, clarify the things and events and you will write to me by tomorrow evening, how you think of the accusation, why they accused you, who accused you and what pushed those people to accuse you”?
She: – “Say the things accurately and sharply with as much as you know, because if what you say is true, others will have their place here, I swear to you for this”.
He: – “Never will I give things in writing, and even worse in these moments; you are there to bring out the truth, that which my investigator did not do well, you do it, Madam District Chief Prosecutor, bring out the truth”.
She: – “How dare you break my order, have you thought well what you are saying…?! Collect your thoughts, here you are in investigation and soon you will go before the law, for shameful acts with a minor”!
He: – “You can do everything Madam Chief Prosecutor, but my word is one and only one, I have not done any shameful action, I am very honest, with an extremely honest family and with a brilliant background”.
She: – “Listen here professor, you will do as you are told, take the pen and paper, until tomorrow give me everything I asked of you, one and one make two, did you hear, say ‘I heard’? In an urgent manner you will write what you know about this story, as the main author.
He: – “Well, bring the paper for me to sign in blank and you devise the story yourself, weave it as you like, it has little importance for me, or is this what you seek honorable lady…?! Here I am, bring it for me to sign and you emerge with a realized plan and honored, while I serve the sentence without guilt…! I am telling you soulfully and in plain Albanian for the last time, I am completely innocent, believe this, I am innocent, the intrigue was made against me by my opponents, which I have repeated thousands of times to the investigator, you know things better…”!
She: – “How do you prove them”?
He: – “The proof is clear… convicting me and follows the investigation according to the report I made since the first day to the investigator”!
She: – “How can we understand this, as long as I ask that you write me the whole story, from the beginning”?!
He: – “Very simply, you have all my statements recorded by the investigator, who naturally has made them known to you, and there is no reason to ask me for them again! I have declared to him with responsibility and sincerity, that is the truth”.
She: – “In short words defendant, you will not confess to me in writing what I ask of you”?!
He: – “Categorically no! If you want to hear my statements once more, with full pleasure I will confess them to you, but in writing never ever”.
She: – “Well then, we will make a compromise, if your previous statements do not match these new ones, you will accept the indictment”.
He: – “Madam Prosecutor, my testimony with you will be fundamentally opposite to what I have expressed to the investigator, who insists with persistence that I accept guilt, which I neither committed nor accept. I wanted to explain to you my hypothesis, why they intrigued against me, how and why…?! This you must hear from me and then take the respective decision. You, with the experience you have, will be convinced of what I will tell you! If you wish, listen to me and if the truth was not thus, I accept every accusation”.
She: – “You are dictating to me now, or how can I understand your ‘hypotheses”?
He: – “Quite simply, I think that from these reasons, the intrigue that the ill-wishers made against me has come; if you are convinced, grant justice, otherwise sentence me as much as you want and when you want, I am becoming convinced that justice here with us, as usual, is in the hands of mobsters. I am innocent and period”.
She: – “Defendant, think about what you speak, for tomorrow it will be too late”.
He: – “I have taken everything into account, as long as you investigate the defendant as in the Middle Ages, using methods and fascist violence?! The investigator has tortured me, humiliated me, upon no basis, or will the truth emerge this way, to say that which I have not committed or, to take guilt without being guilty…?! This is how your trials are, Madam Prosecutor….”?!
She: – “Alright, tomorrow morning I will listen to you, and it would be in your best interest to say things as they have happened, so that we too may think and give the reality to justice”.
The prosecutor left the investigation room bewildered by the dialogue with him and with a great uncertainty. In her mind she fixed that the defendant had not committed the act… and that a well-prepared trap against him would be the possibility of the arrest. Nonetheless, she had to hear his persistent version once.
- The following day, the chief prosecutor without any recording device, without notebook and notepad, in conversation with the defendant, heard this story from his mouth:
– “Before I came to the city as a high school teacher, as you are aware, I had served as a mathematics teacher in the 8-year school in the village of D., for nearly ten years, until they transferred me to the city in the best gymnasium, teaching mathematics, a basic subject this for the progress of students further on; this transfer was made to me thanks to my intellectual abilities and as a methodologist for teaching, during my career in the village and from the numerous inspections that the Education section frequently made in our school.
In the beginnings of my work in that village, alongside numerous difficulties, as well as later, I have been a person who adapted to the environment, the village, the customs and I have been an intellectual who supported the new and I tried for the village to develop socially and culturally as well and as quickly as possible. This is also proven by my characteristic [record], which is located in the file of your investigator.
I was connected with friends and moreover I was an activist and propagandist according to the methods of society and according to the instructions of the government. There, in that village, when I had five years as a teacher, a young girl from the city comes to us as a literature teacher, a beautiful girl full of grace and agile.
This girl sincerely entered the hearts of all the people, for her seriousness and her communicative skills, both the parents of the students, the people, but also the local leadership. I, to tell the truth, in the first years did not give her importance, nor did it cross my mind about her, not because she did not deserve my attention, but I had other motives for life, just as I realized them later.
This teacher came from another district and as such she needed our support, which naturally both I and my colleagues gave her with full gratitude and full sincerity. Between the school collective and the pedagogical staff without exception, we supported and integrated the new teacher as soon as she arrived. In a village room she was sheltered together with another teacher and the nurse.
Because besides the educators, who were more or less over fifteen foreigners, there were also two or three locals, but in that village which was more or less like a locality center, a general practitioner also served, another dentist and a nurse and also a forestry technician, or one of culture. To tell the truth, most of these intellectuals were bachelors and every Saturday they descended to the city, near their families.
Suzi, for so the beautiful teacher was called, Suzana, who came from another district, could not naturally go every Saturday to her home, and it happened that her friends took her with them to spend the weekend, together with their family in the city. But later, Suzana, as a girl without mentalities and emancipated, also went to the homes of friends for the weekend, without any ill intent.” / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
