Ministry of Justice: You were risking Ballist's life.

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Albania through a communique has called on Croatian authorities for the non-extradition of Ismail (Balist) Morina in Serbia.

According to them, such a move would endanger the person's life in question, which is being persistently sought by Serbia after the incident that took place at the Serbia match Albania in 2014.

This is the communique of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Albania:

Mr. Justice Minister. Gazment Bardi, under the protection of rights of Albanian national Ismail Morina, has received urgent official contact with competent Croatian authorities to argue from the standpoint of international law, the inability to extradite him to Serbia. To that end, with the letter No. 4782, the date 28/07/2017 to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Albania, has officially asked his Croatian counterpart for failure to approve the extradition request, praising that the extradition requirement conflicts with the Council of Europe Convention “for extradition” and the International Pact for Civil and Political Rights. In this letter, the Ministry of Justice has taken the commitment that at a time as soon as forwarded to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia all the facts and evidence proving that we are ahead of a political violation, which, based on Article 3 of the Council of Europe Convention “for extradition”, cannot be awarded extradition.

The justice minister in the request to Croatian authorities has argued that in the event of extradition to Serbia, Albanian national Ismail Morina risks undergoing persecution, persecutions or politically motivated discrimination due to his citizenship and his personal or social status, which constitutes violation of a fundamental human right, which should hinder the adoption of the extradition request.

To this end today, the Justice Ministry has requested the co-operation of the Albanian Football Federation to make all facts available and evidence proving the political use of Serbian authorities of the event happening at Belgrade Stadium in November 2015, as well as the inhumane behaviour of Serbian fans and stadium staff towards the Albanian national team, with the goal of proviability of the real risk faced by citizens Ismail Morina because of his Albanian citizenship in the event of extradition to Serbia.

Today, too, Mr. Bardh has announced to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he has sent the Justice Ministry of the Republic of Croatia, asking the MPJ to assess the possibility of following other diplomatic routes, or obtaining contact with other state authorities of the Republic of Croatia, to allow the competent Croatian authorities' disapproval of Serbia's request for the extradition of Albanian national Ismail Morina, as well as acceptance by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Croatia's request of the Republic of Albania's Justice for his extradition.

The Justice Ministry all expresses its institutional commitment to protecting the rights of Albanian citizens Ismail Morina and following all legal and institutional routes to prevent its extradition to Serbia, outside the conditions allowed by international conventions in this area.