Opinion ID: 3021770
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Motion to Reopen: On October 9, 2003, the Filjas

Text: moved before the BIA to reopen the proceedings on the grounds that there had been changed conditions in Albania, and that Filja was deprived of his due process rights as a consequence of his former counsel’s ineffective assistance. He also sought protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the “CAT”). In support of the motion Filja submitted a greater than 300 page record consisting of Filja’s and his wife’s affidavits; documents evidencing past persecution of Filja’s family by the Communists-Socialists; affidavits of persons having personal knowledge of the family’s past persecution, Filja’s activities on behalf of the Democratic Party, and Filja’s assignment to the Canadian printing press project; and eight reports of the State Department, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International describing continuing persecution by the Albanian police and secret police of those supporting the principles of the Democratic Party. The record contains evidence supporting Filja’s contention that because of the ineffectiveness of his attorney his case was not fully presented at his June 28, 1996 hearing before the IJ. The changed condition upon which Filja based his motion 7 was the June 1997 return to power of the Socialist Party. Filja relied on the record he submitted to support the significance of that event and the effect it would have upon him and his family. In his own affidavit Filja describes the treatment his family suffered at the hands of the Communist regime after it came to power when Albania was liberated in 1944. Previously they had been prosperous. His maternal grandfather had been a First Captain of the King Zog regime. The Communists seized their property, executed a number of the family members, interned some and deported others from their homes to work camps. Two relatives escaped to the United States and have been granted asylum. In his affidavit, Filja describes his family’s and his own participation in the Democratic Party, formed to oppose the Communist Party’s successor, the Socialist Party. He participated in toppling the statue of dictator Enver Hoxha on June 10, 1991, and ten days later left the country for Canada on the mission to purchase the printing press for the Socialist Party paper, Zeri i Popullit. He informed a leader of the Democratic Party of the project before leaving for Canada, and once in Canada decided to remain. Prior to his IJ hearing he learned of the arrest warrant that had been delivered to his father, and, believing it to be genuine, submitted it as evidence. He later learned that it was false and was prepared by his ex-boss at the paper to get him back to Albania. The exhibits include authenticated official certificates of the execution and imprisonment of Filja’s relatives for opposing the Communist regime. Filja’s wife’s affidavit recited that after Filja had been in Canada for three months, he telephoned her that he was not going to return. Having no means of support, she went to live with her family. People from Zeri i Popullit came to her father and Filja’s father to seek information about Filja, and threatened her, stating, “if you’re not going to talk to Igli [Filja] about the situation you and your son are going to pay the price and Igli is not going to see his son again.” She stated that unknown people attacked her, her son and her brother. She attributed the attack to those who threatened her on account of Filja’s continued absence. “We were coming out from my father’s house. My 8 brother was the first one to get out. He was hit by a motorcycle. My son and I were fine.” The brother remained in a coma in a hospital for three months, but survived. Fearing for her and her child’s lives, Luljeta Filja went to a friend in the Democratic Party, Niazi Kosovrasti, and sought his help obtaining a visa. He was successful, and she was able to travel to the United States in 1993. Kosovrasti, Ex-Secretary of Local Power in the Democratic Party from 1995 till 1997, submitted a declaration dated November 12, 2002. It reads: Filja Igli, descend from an intellectual family with democratic progressive convictions. With the coming at the power of communism in 1944, his family was persecuted from the dictatorial regiment; confiscated his properties and than imprisoning, shootings, deportations his closed members of the family. So, in 1947 is shouted with the deputies group, Karbunara Hysen son of Sheh and his father, going on with the deportation of Shehu Drita who was like a parent for File Suzana, Igli’s mother. In this atmosphere is growing up and educated Filja Igli, who in younger age felt by himself the pressure of communism dictatorship which not only have prisoned and persecute his relatives, but even himself denied from many social rights. He was not allowed to continue university studies, but was offered to him a difficult job, only night’s shift. I have been introduced personally to File Igli later during the years 1990-1991 as a noted activist of the democratic movement in Albania. He have worked for the dissemination of democratic ideas in the youth rank of the neighborhood where he lived. Also, he took part in all the demonstrations that Democratic Party organized during the years 1990-1991. In July 1991 Igli went to Canada with a mechanics group who will remove machinery’s of a printing office which social government had brought for the production of the 9 communist newspaper “Zeri i Popullit”. Igli didn’t make this service to the communist. Igli left Canada and went to America. From July 1991 to March 31, 1992, when Democratic Party won the general parliamentary elections, his wife and family have been threaten from the communists. His wife, Filja Luljeta in the end of year 1991, came to me, in the residency of Democratic Party worried from the pressure made to her, cause her husband, Igli, left to America looking for protection from Democratic Party. After take over the power violently, on 1991, the communist continue to be in power. I think that the story of Igli’s leaving on 1991 is not forget till now, so his coming in Albania can be problematic. Drita Shehu, one of Filja’s relatives who had been granted asylum in the United States, submitted an affidavit that stated: I was granted political asylum base on Persecution, Mistreatment and Torture. My husband Hysen Shehu Karbunara and his father were executed on death penalty with the known “Group of the Deputies” in the year 1947 from Communist Regime. The persecution and torture followed my family and me; we were deported from our homes to a remote village where we wore forced to work in labor camps. Part of my family it is Suzana (Igli’s mother) and her sister, my sisters daughters, whom I took care for a long time because their mother died to young, 28 years old. I have known Igli myself. He had a hard time growing and did not have all the privileges like every citizen had, because of his family background. Because of that he grew up hating the regime on power, and in 1990 he was on front of every democratic activity. He helped and worked against the Social Communist regime in existence. Considering his and his family’s background, his hate and activities he did against the Social Communist regime, I 10 think that him and his family will be in danger and it will pay for Igli’s actions if he returns in that Social Communist regime. Another relative, Mimoza Korca, who was born in Albania in 1944, submitted a sworn statement concerning the persecution to which the family had been subjected. It reads in part: My name is Mimoza Korca. I am an American citizen issuing the following statement on behalf of Igli Filja, who is the son of my first cousin, Suzana Filja. In November of the year 1944 the communists took the power in our country and started building the harsh dictatorship regime that ruled for almost half of century. My family, as a wealthy one, was among the most persecuted ones in Albania. The communists sentenced to death and executed my father, my uncle as well as two of my first cousins. My father was incriminated as a collaborator of the anglo-americans and executed. My uncle, (my father’s brother), was accused as if he was member of a group that had thrown a bomb against the Russian Embassy in Tirana, prosecuted and killed under this untrue accuse. Same destiny had also the two my first cousins, one of them 23 years old and the other in his 17th year of life. Without a difference is as well as the political background of my husband’s family, who has four victims dead as a result of the communist regime: his father past away under hunger strike in prison as an act of rebellion against he regime and three of his uncles were executed by the communists. According to all of those facts, my point of view is that if my cousin Igli Filja goes back with his family in Albania, the so named socialists, (in fact former communists), that are ruling the country will, without delay inflict harm to him and his family. So with him, it will recommence again from the beginning, the sad history that had started 55 years ago with our families. 11 A Filja friend, Filip Kristani, signed an affidavit providing details concerning the Canadian venture. It reads: In 1990, I started to work in Zeri Popullit one of the biggest newspaper on that time. For Albania, it was also one of the best propaganda for the regime. I was working as a mechanical engineer, Igli and I, were working together on finishing of the newspaper for that company and we made sure all the machines were working non stop and we did work, night shift. Igli Filja has been a friend of mine for more than 15 years I spend with him many evenings talking about the regime, he always use to tell me about his family how the communist regime torched his family and he used to make plans, Igli knew many people who then became very important on Democratic Party. In 1991 the company where we worked had a project to obtain a new printing machine from Canadian Communist party, I think that was a rushed time for the socialist party because of the election, so we had to go in Canada to specialize on the best color printing machine. Igli was the first one who said we should not return for this project and that’s what we did we never went back to Albania. I believe if Igli Filja goes back in Albania he will be arrested because of his political beliefs. The eight Department of State Country Reports, Human Rights World Reports and Amnesty International Reports that Filja submitted in support of his motion to reopen provide evidence that Albanian police and other authorities were continuing persecution of those who opposed the Socialist regime. For example: The Government’s human rights record remained poor in many areas; although there were some improvements in a few areas, serious problems remain. Police beat and otherwise abused suspects, detainees, and prisoners. Prison conditions remained poor. The police arbitrarily arrested and detained persons and prolonged pretrial detention was a problem. The judiciary was inefficient, subject to corruption and executive pressure on the 12 judiciary remained a serious problem. U.S. Department of State, Albania, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES - 2002. Following a series of political crises, by mid-year Albania entered a period of which appeared to be more stable and inclusive governance. Nevertheless, impunity for police abuse, failures of various government branches to uphold the rule of law, trafficking in human beings, and widespread violations of children’s rights continued to be major concerns. . . . The excessive reaction against Albania’s highest court revealed a thin commitment to the rules of law when political stakes are high. . . . Albania’s executive and judicial authorities continued to fail to combat police violence. Torture and physical abuse of detainees were widespread and unpunished. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 2003, ALBANIA, available at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/europe1.html. Several cases of torture and other serious abuse by the Albanian police in 2001 highlighted the prevalence of police misconduct, particularly as it concerned children and opposition activists . . . . The DP [Democratic Party] repeatedly protested the arrests and alleged police beatings of participants in its political rallies, which sometimes turned violent. Azgan Haklaj, the head of the DP branch in Tropoja, was brutally assaulted by the special police in January 2001 after having been arrested for his alleged role in a November 2000 attack on the Tropoja police station. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 2002, ALBANIA, available at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/europe1.html. Detainees, including children, continued to be frequently ill-treated and sometimes tortured during arrest and in 13 police custody, usually to force confessions. Judicial proceedings against police officers accused of illtreatment were rare. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, ALBANIA COVERING EVENTS FROM JANUARY - DECEMBER 2002. Although the record contains evidence that even during the years of Democratic Party rule, Socialist Party supporters within the police and special police continued to attack Democratic Party activists, the situation became dramatically more dangerous for those activists when the Socialist Party reestablished control of the entire governmental structure in 1997. This, of course, is the changed country condition upon which Filja bases his motion to reopen. The supporting papers seek to show why Filja’s initial application for asylum at the June 28, 1996 hearing failed fully to develop the important background information concerning the longstanding persecution of Filja’s family, Filja’s own participation in the Democratic Party activities, and the continuing threats made against Filja’s wife and son. The reason given is the ineffective representation provided to Filja by his then counsel. In his many papers Filja presented a host of errors committed by former counsel: i) he failed to advance the facts Filja recounted to him concerning his family’s long-standing persecution and his political activity on behalf of the Democratic Party, neither correcting and supplementing Filja’s form asylum affidavit nor preparing to bring out full testimony at the hearing; ii) he informed Filja that he did not have a case because the Democratic Party was then in power, failing to comprehend that even though the Democratic Party was in power the Socialists had strong support within the police forces and were killing opposition persons to get back in power; iii) he failed to recognize that Filja feared persecution by the Socialist Party and police whom the Democratic Party had been, and would be, unable to control; iv) he failed to set forth the specific mistreatment Filja’s close relatives – wife, son, father, grandfather and maternal great-aunt – had received as a result of 14 being associated with the Democratic Party; v) he failed to develop the fact that his brother-in-law, Gene Dingu, was attacked outside the home where Luljeta Filja and the son were living; vi) he failed to call available witnesses, including Filja’s wife, who was sitting outside the hearing room, who could have provided detail and corroboration to Filja’s account; and vii) he failed to provide State Department Country Reports and reports of human rights organizations that describe the political situation in Albania and ongoing persecution of political dissidents such as Filja.