Three mentally ill sisters sexually abused in Albania

A woman in the mid-30s always smilingly pushing a baby cart full of plastic bidonnas gathered in trash bins while walking near the door of Lezha City's Day Development Centre.

Along with her mother and the baby's empty cart, she still comes to the center where she grew up and stayed for 20 years to get her lunch meal, although she is no longer accepted in 2016 because of her old age.

The wife is disabled and lives with her mother and two younger sisters who suffer from the same mental problems as she does. Left without legal custody and abandoned by institutions, all three sisters are victims of sexual-creative abuses that have never turned white.

The woman BIRN met at the entrance of the daily Centre has given birth to a child as a result of sexual abuse, while the second sister is pregnant and the third has previously been subjected to an abortion.

The girls have fallen prey to abuses in the middle of town and have become pregnant,” denounced their uncle for BIRN, while adding that none of the state institutions has come to his aid.

Sexual abuse of mentally troubled women has occurred on the sunny day in the streets of Lezha, while a host of institutions including the State Social Service (SHSSH), the Social Service Office near Lezha City City City Hall, Prosecutor or City Police have turned a blind eye.

BIRN's questions about why the three women were left to chance and why no one had reacted after abuse of them, the institutions responsible for social care in Lezha responded by blaming each other. They were justified in procedural paperwork and technical table, which, as found, has given no solution to the problem.

The case of three Lezha sisters comes after abuse and violence against disabled people have been found earlier. In 2009, two sisters were found to be chained by their parents in Debar, a 26-year-old man was also held in Fier on the pretext of being violent, while a similar case was discovered in Kavaja. Several times, abuse has already been denounced at public care centres.

Crime Without Punishment

A video captured by a mobile phone became viral in September 2017 on various websites in Albania. The video that was sold as “-sexual scandal” on a series of Web pages was later found to be characterised by one of Lezha's sisters.

Lezha police then began criminal proceedings and pursued an 85-year-old who was charged with “sexual relations with unskilled persons to protect”. But according to my uncle's testimony, as well as government officials of the State Service and the Social Service in Lezha Basque, this was not the first abuse or the last of women with mental problems.

Uncle whose name is B INR does not publish it to protect the identity of girls, said abuses began as soon as girls left the daily centre that cared for them.

The sisters have fallen prey to abuse since they left the daily treatment center, here two years ago. Since that time they remained in the street situation,” he said, while he says his continued interest in finding a shelter has not been answered.

Abandoned, the three sisters fell prey to abuse by strangers. My uncle says one of them was sent by him to have an abortion. Another brought the pregnancy to an end and gave birth to a young girl under the custody of nuns in Elbasan.

The girl's uncle told BIRN that she had been a nun who had not allowed an abortion to be performed, even though he said “girls are unable to care for a child”.

It is unclear because of a lack of legal custody how legitimate the decision to have an abortion is either. According to evidence BIRN collected, on the basis of a forensic expertise, the girl who gave birth to the child was declared unable to make decisions herself and also unable to care for the child.

Meanwhile, the third daughter is still pregnant and is expected to be born soon.

But while sexual abuses against them continued to happen openly, Lezha police told BIRN that there had been no tingling and that no one but 85-year-olds who resulted in the video had been prosecuted for their abuse.

BIRN also learned that there are no investigations in the prosecutor to teach abusers, although the Penal Code provides sentences of between 5 and 15 years in prison for abusers, when the person of “has trouble protecting”.

Sources from the prosecution said there was no proceedings, even though the latter has officially been aware of the invited abuse as the third party from January of this year in the trial initiated by Lezha City Hall for the custody of the Elbasan-born baby.

While it was not possible to learn from the prosecution the reasons for the failure to start the investigation, police, in turn, were justified having had no references.

The police were never referring to us by the institutions of the abuse of three girls”, Chief of the Lezha Police Commissioner told BIRN Besim Palaman.

Palaman's claim is opposed by the Lezha municipality, which says it has informed police of the abuses.

“We have initiated several inter-institution technical tables, for assuming legal responsibilities, reflecting the problem to police organs as well. We have not yet been informed whether there is a criminal prosecution against abusive persons with girls,” said Lezha Mayor Alfreda Dedjonaj (Marku) in a conversation.

My sister's uncle also claims to have gone to the police. He says he has on one occasion complained about the nun who had not allowed abortion to be performed, but also says that she has not received an answer.

Despite the police claim no references, B The IERN found that she was invited to <x0->technical tables” made by the Mayor Lezha and the Prefecture to resolve the case.

Lawyer Shace Marini, mostly appointed by the court to protect one of the sisters in the child's custody case, acknowledged that institutions were aware of sexual abuse and that this was also released during court hearings -- but she justified the prosecution.

The fact that they've been abused is on trial, but there's nothing to do. The sisters don't know who it is. They have been questioned in my presence, the doctor's and the social care and is unable to say who he is,” said Marin, claiming that the prosecution could not begin the investigation without suspicion.

Nobody gets responsibility

Repeated crime of sexual abuse against three mentally challenged sisters is the result of abandoning them to the mercy of fate -- while social care institutions in the city of Lezha are justified with the inability to provide them with a safe haven.

Their uncle and a State Social Service specialist, who told BIRN that he was constantly dealing with their case claimed abuses began shortly after they left the Ditor Development Centre.

Until 2016, we were cautious despite our age near the day center. Until then, they were not abused, but were later removed from the centre,” said the social worker. The same statement is made in a memo that Lezha's SHSSH director, Keler Sufaj, sent to BIRN.

After leaving the center, sisters are in a bad life situation, as they spend most of their time on the streets,” says in the document.

The director of the Ditor Development Centre, depending on the municipality, Mariana Prenga told BIRN that although she had not been on duty when sisters had left the centre, shelter there could not protect them from abuse.

“The centre is daily and after closing time they would be back on the road”, Prenga said.

Mayor Lezha Alfrieda Dedgjnik (Mark) says that the departure of girls from the centre was imposed, given the municipal Council's regulation of the centre.

Because girls are 34,36 and 38 (year) and because the behavior of one of them has been aggressive towards children in the center, we have no access to the daily development center,” said Dedgjyna.

Although the three girls are in a harsh economic situation, between illness and abuse, B The IERN found that their situation had become part of local bureaucratic and political ping-pong since 2016.

The sides claimed they had called for several inter-istual meetings where both the Lezha and the State Social Service were present and sent out paperwork called for resolution but handed responsibility to each other.

The Regional Directorate of the State Social Service, depending on the Ministry of Health and Social Defence, blamed Basque Lezha, which is controlled by the opposition for failing to act on the case.

Until right now, no measures have been taken for the rehabilitation of these sisters and the final solution to this” situation, said in the memo that was sent to BIRN by S.H.A. Director Keller Sufja. It also says that involvement in a non-resident community center would be the best solution for three sisters.

Sufja said in a telephone conversation that the municipality did not recognise the obligations stemming from territorial reform. He said the issue was delicate and he did not want to politicise it, but implied that this did not happen in the municipality. I've never seen this readiness from the other side”, Sufja said.

On the other hand, Mayor Lezha denied that responsibilities fell on the municipal institution and said they had done everything they could in this case, but their problem was solved by including in a residential centre. She said the municipality did not have such a centre and that the financial burden for its opening should be divided between the government and local government.

In the meantime, she blamed SSHA for not doing the job.

I'm sorry if someone abused me by saying the municipality has not invented its obligations. I suggest everyone is familiar with the competencies, rights and institutional obligations, and that the competencies stem from the law and not from other experiences that are not professionalism”, Dedjorna wrote in an e-mail to BIRN, where she noted that the SSH should seek refuge for girls, who, according to her, were also endangered by trafficking.

As they continue to launch letters to each other and other institutions, both the municipality and the local State Social Service office seem to have surrendered in time as far as the opportunity is to help girls.

The only process undertaken by the Lezha City Hall that is heading towards closure is the custody of the child of one of the girls from the Children's Protection Unit.

The leader of this unit, Anita Cedeli, said the process could only be done for minors under 18 years of age. Cedeli said that although she was asked by the SSH, the municipality had not found legal grounds to seek custody for sisters who are between 34 and 40 years of age.

There is no access to intervention. There is no legal basis for intervention,” said Kadeli. She said that the child's custody process would be repeated once the other girl was born.

Their close uncle, who could claim legal custody, also says he could not have taken it because of their mother's opposition. A decision by the Medical Commission on Job Capacity Setting (KMCAP), which assigns three sisters to the second category, cannot afford state institutions to take custody of them, as the commission judges they can take care of themselves.

Meanwhile, according to SHSH specialists, the lack of legal custody had made the situation hopeless.

“They cannot be sent anywhere by force without a legal guardian who can decide for them”, said the director of this Sufja service, which also claimed it was difficult to find even a centre where they could be accommodated. Deputy Mayor Lezha also suggests that KMCAP's decision is an obstacle. “A review of the mind and physical capacity of these girls, as a current and real qualification of their ability by KMCAP could give you the possibility of serving a guardian”, says Dedgjaj.

Asked whether they could be protected from abuse, none of the institutions was able to propose a possible solution, in addition to seeking a residential centre or settling under the care of a communitarian centre. A municipal representative said she had been asked to the “police was careful --” in the area where the sisters were staying, but that doesn't seem to have had any effect so far.

Institutions say they are still searching for a solution and describe the situation as serious, but for three years, mentally troubled sisters continue to live in street situations and in constant danger of abuse. (reporter. Al)