Justice Minister Ulsi Manja confirmed this Wednesday the government’s plan to implement a criminal amnesty for prisoners over the course of 2023.

Euronews journalist Eni Ferhati revealed that this decision comes as a result of the overloaded capacities in prisons.

According to the journalist, for the first time in Albania the number of detainees has exceeded the number of convicted persons.

Currently, there are 2,200 convicts and 2,800 detainees in Albania, said Ferhati.

“To give some information as to why this amnesty is supposed to be undertaken. For the first time, to my knowledge, we have reached conditions where in the penitentiary system we have more detainees than prisoners. So there are about 2,800 detainees and 2,200 convicts. The law on the execution of criminal decisions is clear that detainees cannot be kept in the same premises as prisoners if there is no final decision. The issue of amnesty is also related to another concern, it just so happens that there are many repressive measures that are in place when determining a suspect’s security measure. This leads to many cases being ordered a direct prison arrest instead of other lighter measures being applied”, said Ferhati.