The court of Gjirokastra has sentenced Mondi Kolila, chairman of the Movement for the Renaissance of the Northern Epirus to 8 years and 6 months in prison in absentia. He has been declared guilty for intended to incite others to hatred and violence.
This sentence for Kolila is due to the activity of May 12, 2018 in the village of Bularat in the Municipality of Dropull, in the district of Gjirokastra.
The rally, organized by Kolila, was held near the village high school, without the permission of the authorities, for the anniversary of the Corfu Protocol and the autonomy of Northern Epirus, for the fallen warriors in 1914.
In the court decision, provided by abcnews.al, it is stated that in this session hearing were held regarding the so-called issue of Vorio Epirus where books were distributed, in Greek that present misinformation circumstances and historical facts related to this issue that promote hatred or strife between racial and religious nationalities.
Also during the rally were unveiled two Greek flags with the inscription 1914 (flags of Northern Epirus), which were removed after the end of this activity, which lasted about 45 minutes. The local police was not notified about the rally. This gathering has been covered as news by some media and online Albanian daily newspapers.
In 2018, the Gjirokastra Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation after the reference materials from the Anti-Terrorist Directorate. The decision of his sentence of 8 years and 6 months was taken by the Gjirokastra Court of First Instance on February 11, 2021./abcnews.al
