The Ulcinj police determined that tear gas was indeed thrown on the night of May 29, 2024, in the Ulcinj Municipal Assembly hall, when an extraordinary session was interrupted to discuss the dismissal of former Mayor Omer Bajraktari (Civil Movement URA).
The Police Directorate told "Vijesti" that officers of the Ulcinj Security Department, acting upon the report, took official measures and actions to determine all the circumstances "under which the tear gas was activated in the Ulcinj City Council building" and that, by order of the Basic State Prosecutor (ODT), case files were created and "submitted to the prosecutor's office for assessment and further jurisdiction."
The police did not answer the question of what the camera footage and communications logs showed, the review of which was ordered by the Ulcinj ODT.
When the incident occurred, the ODT told "Vijesti" that police officers were determining whether tear gas, pepper spray or some other substance was thrown. Preliminary results of the investigation showed at the time that tear gas was not used, but some other chemical substance.
The perpetrators of that incident are still unknown to the investigating authorities a year later.
On May 14, responding to questions from "Vijesti", the ODT said "that regarding the incident where an unknown chemical device was activated, a case was opened in this prosecutor's office against unknown perpetrators."
"We also inform you that the Basic State Prosecutor's Office has submitted a request to the Police Directorate OB (Security Department) Ulcinj to collect information, which orders police officers to collect the necessary information and to take legally prescribed measures and actions within their jurisdiction in order to discover and identify the perpetrators, but that officers of the Police Directorate OB Ulcinj have not yet identified the aforementioned persons," the ODT announced at the time.
"Vijesti" announced at the end of August last year that the last evidentiary action taken up to that point was obtaining a list of communications.
"The implementation of this evidentiary action has been submitted to the Police Directorate. The Police Directorate's report has not been submitted so far," the Ulcinj prosecutor's office told the newspaper at the time.
The incident occurred late at night at an extraordinary session of the Ulcinj parliament, during a discussion on the dismissal of the then mayor of the municipality, Bajraktarija, when an unknown chemical device was thrown, causing chaos in the municipal hall. The councilors then left the hall, in front of the municipality building, where ambulances and police vehicles were also present. No one was injured in the incident.
The extraordinary session of the Municipal Assembly continued a little later, and after midnight Bajraktari was dismissed from his duties by the votes of 20 councilors present. Then the new assembly majority elected Genci Nimanbegu (Forca) as the head of the Municipality.
Frictions on the Ulcinj political stage began in April last year, about a month before the announced rotation of the positions of Mayor of the Municipality and Municipal Assembly, which were held by Bajraktari and Ardijan Mavrić (Forca).
The government in Ulcinj was formed after the 2022 elections by the coalition "For a New Start" (Civil Movement URA, Democratic Party, Social Democrats, Social Democratic Party and Albanian Alternative) and Forca.
However, this majority existed only on paper in the spring of last year, as the Civic Movement URA and the Albanian Alternative had concluded an agreement with the then opposition Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) on the latter's entry into power at the local level. There was speculation that the Civic Movement URA wanted to oust Forca from power with this move.
The Democratic Party, the Social Democrats and the Social Democratic Party did not agree to this scenario, so Forca concluded an agreement with them and the then opposition Democratic Party of Socialists on the formation of a new ruling coalition, which has a mandate to govern until regular local elections in early 2026.
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