Ekrem Spahiu (born 18 April 1960) was a Member of the

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

n Parliament in XVIth legislature (from 2001). Eqerem Spahia was arrested for "organising armed uprising, participating in it and violating institutions" after an armed protest near the parliament building that aimed to topple the Nano government and bring to power Crown Prince Leka, son of

Zog of Albania Zog I (born Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli; 8 October 18959 April 1961) was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. At age 27, he first served as Albania's youngest ever Prime Minister (1922–1924), then as president (1925–1928), and finally as King ...

, in September 1998. Ekrem Spahiu made the most disputed case of homophobia and hate speech in Albania as he stated in 2012 to a local newspaper: “What remains to be done is to beat them up with a stick. If you don't understand this, I can explain it: to beat them with a rubber stick”. The EU Delegation in Tirana,

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

, Amnesty International and ILGA Europe, the local and international media covered and condemned this statement, even Prime Minister Sali Berisha condemned it publicly, but the Commissioner failed to follow up the case.

References

1960 births Living people Albanian monarchists Members of the Parliament of Albania {{Albania-politician-stub

See also

References