Parliament lifts immunity

The law for lifting the immunity received 129 votes in favor, 0 abstains and 0 against. The Parliament rejected the Socialist propositions for Constitutional amends that mostly affect the appointments of new names at the Supreme Court, the Constitutional and the Prosecution.

Both laws were voted among debates between both political forces. The Socialist MP, Erjon Brace, criticized the law for conflict of interest, especially article 15.5 that according to him is unclear and leaves room to abuses.

The immunity lifting was greeted by the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani, while continuing his official visit in Brussels, and also by the OSCE Ambassador in Tirana, Eugen Wollfarth. President Nishani felicitated the political class for achieving such a step and he appealed both parties to cooperate.

The OSCE ambassador, Eugen Wollfarth, felicitated the political forces for this great step, as the declaration considers it, and said that no law violator can enjoy impunity.

The Head of the EU delegation in Tirana, Ettore Sequi, welcomed the immunity removal by considering it an important step for the war against corruption.

Berisha accused former President Bamir Topi

The Albanian Prime Minister thanked the opposition for the consensus of what he called “a multi-year effort” of the democrats, and then he launched a series of corruption accusations against the former President, Bamir Topi, and the former High Council of Justice vice Chairman, Kreshnik Spahiu.

“Justice under your Topi and the “shameless” was in its darkest period. You can ask judges and you will see that the transferring of one judge from Durres to Tirana was a corruptive affair of 500.000 EUR”, Berisha declared by accusing the opposition of controlling the justice through the former President Bamir Topi and the former HCJ vice chairman, Kreshnik Spahiu.

The Socialist Parliamentary Group leader answered to Berisha by accusing him of trying to occupy the justice system, and that the Socialist package aims to liberate this system from politics.

The Socialist leader accused the majority of being connected with Ilir Xhakja, the murderer of the Shijak Chief of Police. Ruci said that Xhakja was used by the majority to collect votes during the campaign.

“Ilir Xhakja was used until today to fill your electoral boxes. Today you are trying to blame the opposition for him. It’s useless. He dared to shoot a uniform on broad daylight because you defended him”, Ruci declared.

Majority rejects Socialis propositions

The SP propositions were mostly about appointing the members and chairmen of the Supreme and Constitutional Court. The majority objected the oppositions request witht eh arguments that those propositions were establishing a blocking minority.

The opposition defended its package by adding that they guarantee a justice system that is more dependent from politics. The Socialist MP, Sajmir Tahiri, accused the majority and PM Berisha of aiming to command all institutions.

According to Tahiri, HCJ and other justice institutions are led by people who have close ties with the MPs and ministers of the majority. Tahiri added that the real “blocking minority” is the government.

Ruci: Government commanding justice institutions

The Socialist Parliamentary Group leader, Gramoz Ruci, accused the majority by saying that while they demand the opposition’s cooperation in Parliament, outside this institution they are not implementing the Court decisions, by bringing problems to the Fier District, whose Council has not been constituted yet.

To the argument that the justice commanded by a justice system ran by the majority, Ruci added the politically based violence against the Tepelena Aqueduct director one day ago.

Gramoz Ruci, the Socialist Parliamentary Group leader: Yesterday in Tepelena, although the Municipality was won by the SP, the Aqueduct director was brutally beaten and now he is hospitalized. If you continue to command the judiciary partially, do not ask for the opposition’s support in the justice reforms. If the verdicts of First, Second and Third Degree Courts are not implemented, and if you will keep using violence against the opposition, don’t ask for our cooperation. These are the priorities and requests of Brussels.  Don’t ask our Commission of Laws members to contribute with the justice reforms when the Supreme Court do not implement the verdicts, because they are commanded by the majority.

The Parliament Speaker, Jozefina Topalli: The justice system needs to be reinforced. The justice system reforms are a priority and we have the obligation to implement the duties brought by Brussels, besides those that we as Albanians need. The 12 priority list is not for the government, but for Albania and the Albanians. And we must not stop here. We must work to make the justice system independent from money, not politics; from corruption, not politics.

The Parliamentary debate continued with discussions about the amend of two laws, that for the conflict of interest and the functionality of the High Inspectorate of Declaration and Audit of Assets.

The opposition declared that the interventions for declaring assets is incomplete, arguing that it doesn’t include a periodic declaration of the people who live together with the high rank official that is obliged to declared the asset.

Erjon Brace added that the law does not establish the argument of the way how high rank officials have become rich, since the amend foresees only the declaration of the origin of assets. 

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