Written by: Mustafa Nano
Some of my colleagues have gone into hysterics with this story of the glass cage, inside which they saw Ilir Meta, the former president and former prime minister.
Some of them were also traumatized by Meta's appearance: his face pale, his hair uncut, and his appearance older, suggesting that he had been mistreated or drugged.
I don't understand why they become more Catholic than the Pope.
Meta himself has not complained about any mistreatment. He has complained about other things (the political process, etc.), but not about mistreatment. He has been removed in the face, as he has been working out for a while (remember when he posted videos of himself bathing in the river or climbing trees?).
He has a clean cut, as he usually does (we've never seen him with bangs or hair hanging over his shoulders). And finally, he's definitely older. That's how every person we see for the first time in two or three years looks to us.
Let's return to the glass cage, which is now a well-known and old practice in Albanian courtrooms. The cage was originally made of bars, and later, under the suggestion (pressure) of the European Court of Human Rights, it was made of glass.
And it is clear that such a practice in courtrooms is unnecessary. I do not see the cage as offensive, but as unnecessary.
In my opinion, it should be in the courtroom, but it should only be used in extreme cases (when a notorious criminal or a powerful mafia group is being tried). For others, it seems like a meaningless object. And this applies to everyone, not just Ilir Meta. The latter, when he was in power, could have taken an initiative to remove (or limit the use of) the cage, but it never occurred to him to do so.
Just as it doesn't occur to the rest of us when people we don't know and haven't eaten or drunk with end up in a cage.
However, the hysteria "in defense" of Ilir Meta is excessive. That cage is not as humiliating as they make it out to be. It is a shame to end up in a courtroom, not to be "locked" in a cage.
Even without that cage, Meta would be surrounded by two or three policemen, which for me – and for those who have mourned these two days with tears and sorrow – is more difficult. So let's not give vain displays of compassion and pity.
In all this history, Ilir Meta has only been wronged once: when he was arrested. Arresting him in the middle of the road and forcibly removing him from his car were horrific, bandit-like acts for which – strangely enough – no one was held accountable. No one apologized.
No one was given an explanation for what happened. And no one, neither the police-thugs nor their leaders, got a thorn in their side.
As for the rest, nothing has happened to put the spotlight on it.
The story is simple: There is an accusation against Ilir Meta and a trial is underway.
Let's wait for its end.
t7 live
