Albania and Switzerland: Wildfires, police arrests, and activist costs

In Albania, emergency services continue to battle wildfires in the Puka region. The fires have affected approximately 3,000 hectares of forest and shrubland. While the situation in Gojan i Madh has stabilized, allowing some evacuated residents to return, active fires persist in the areas of Prozhëm and Rrape, where terrain makes intervention difficult.

In Tirana, police conducted several operations resulting in multiple arrests. In operation ‘Last Gun’, a 32-year-old man was arrested for possession of an illegal firearm and 15,800 euros. Additionally, two men were detained in operations ‘HIJA’ and ‘REACTION’ for involvement in six theft cases, including one individual who violated house arrest terms.

In Switzerland, the Basel-Stadt Police clarified that two activists were billed 90,000 Swiss francs to cover the costs of a police operation. The charges stem from an incident in July where the individuals occupied an abandoned building in the Klybeck chemical complex to establish a self-managed cultural center.