Ilir Meta has made public another complaint from pretrial detention, this time over what he presents as a breach of confidentiality in communication with his legal defense. According to Meta, meetings with his lawyer were held in a room monitored by cameras, and he warns that he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Meta’s claim about prison meetings
According to Meta’s own statement, he held a second meeting with lawyer Ledi Bianku, who will represent him before the European Court of Human Rights.
Meta claims that during the first meeting, held on July 17, 2026 at Jordan Misja prison, the presence of a camera was noticed in the room where communication with the lawyer was taking place. In his account, the same situation was repeated at the next meeting as well.
At the center: confidentiality of communication with the defense
Meta considers this a serious violation of the right to defense and of standards related to the confidentiality of communication between a person deprived of liberty and his lawyer.
In his public statement, he argues that such monitoring cannot be treated as a merely technical or administrative matter, but as a problem that directly affects the guarantees of due legal process. These are claims by the defense side and not a finding publicly verified by the responsible institutions.
Letter to the Justice Ministry and prison authorities, but no response
Meta says that his two legal defenders formally addressed the Minister of Justice and the General Director of Prisons to request measures ensuring the confidentiality of legal meetings.
According to him, by the time of the most recent meeting there had been no response from the institutions and, furthermore, no change in the conditions under which the meetings were held. This raises significant questions about the actual standards applied to defense communications in the penitentiary system.
Warning of an appeal to Strasbourg
Meta says that, together with his lawyer, he will turn to the European Court of Human Rights over what he describes as a breach of the guarantees of the European Convention, the right to an effective defense, and the confidentiality of communication with counsel.
In essence, the former president is seeking for the case to be treated not only as an individual complaint, but also as a test of how the procedural rights of persons deprived of liberty are respected in Albania.
So far, there has been no public reaction from the Justice Ministry or the General Directorate of Prisons regarding the claims raised by Meta.
In the absence of an official clarification, the matter remains at the level of allegations made by him and his legal defense, but it touches on a sensitive issue: whether communication with a lawyer is truly guaranteed inside prisons.