President fulfills Berisha’s request and fires Secret Service Director

More than one month after taking his duty, the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani, has discharged the Director of the Secret Service, Bahri Shaqirin.

This decision means that it is taken in full harmony with Prime Minister’s Berisha’s will, since he is the one who has proposed it.

The President has also decreed the new Secret Service Director. He is Visho Ajazi Lika, currently Deputy Minister for Technology and Information.

Vishi Lika graduated at the Tirana University for Mathematics. In 1991 he received his PhD for Cmputer Siences, when Albania had almost no computers, and in 1993 he received a post doctorate title at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.

This might have been the reason why Ajazi was among the few persons who led the project for the computerization of the National Secret Service in 1993.

Besides the international experience, the new Director of Secret Services has worked at the Foreign Ministry when PM Berisha was still president.

This means that they have cooperated in the past, and they also have a consolidated friendship, since the new director is member of the government cabinet.

What makes important this decree of President Nishani not only the name of the new director, but the one that he discharged, Bahri Shaqiri. 

Berisha has had a lack of accordance with Shaqiri since the beginning, and has even publicly declared that he dislikes him. Shaqiri has had the support public and not public support of the international partners, mainly from the US Embassy, which is one of the biggest contributors for the consolidation of the Secret Services in Albania.

SHBA: Surprised by the decision

Shaqiri has had the support public and not public support of the international partners, mainly from the US Embassy, which is one of the biggest contributors for the consolidation of the Secret Services in Albania.

For his reason, the first reactions have come from the US Embassy in Tirana.

A high rank official soruce of the US Embassy in Tirana declared for Top Channel that the US has not been informed for Shaqiri’s discharge and that they are surprised by this fast and unexpected decision. The Director of the Secret Services has been the object of a disagreement between the US Embassy and Prime Minister Berisha two years ago, when they opposed the Prime Minister’s request to discharge him.

The source declared that the “US are surprised by this fast and unexpected decision, considering the time that led to Shaqiri’s discharge”.

Meanwhile, the congratulatory telegrams sent for his election as President by the international partners and even the US State Secretary, Hillary Clinton, emphasized the importance of the new President’s duty to preserve the independence of institutions, meaning the judiciary, the Prosecution and the Secret Service.

Rama: Berisha’s servant as head of SHISH

The Socialist leader, Edi Rama, reacted immediately for the discharge of the Secret Service (SHISH) Director Bahri Shaqiri, and his replacement with Visho Likaj.

“This decision of the President is the exemplary act of his dependence from the Prime Minister, and it will bring negative consequences for the political and institutional life”, writes Rama on Twitter.

According to the Opposition leader, this decision is shameful, because it has destroyed the independence of the Secret Service, and because the Prime Minister made this change without consulting Albania’s greatest strategic ally, the USA, by returning everyone back in time.

“The President replaced the Secret Service Director with a servant of Berisha, same as himself. What a shame”, Rama declared.

SP: Nishani confirmed our suspicions

The Socialist MP, Besnik Bare, reacted after by considering Nishani’s decree as a confirmation of the opposition’s concerns that he would be a notary of the government.

“The president’s decision to obey to Berisha is the example that the opposition was right about its stances. Not only the President was elected impartially, but  Nishani proved today all opposition’s suspicions that he was a servant of Sali Berisha.

Bure underlined that another indicator of this is the fact that Nishani discharged Shaqiri when the strategic partners of Albania have been against the return of the constitutional institutions under the government’s grip.

NDS: Berisha is usurping the institutions

The New Democratic Spirit reacted for the replacement of the Secret Service Director, Bahri Shaqiri.

“Berisha is usurping all constitutional institutions. Albania is going farther from the EU and NATO standards, and towards the Lukashenko model. The alarm bells are ringing for Albania and the international partners”, the reaction says.

The Red and Black Alliance: Berisha occupied every institution

The Red and Black Alliance reacted after the recent move, declaring that after discharging the Secret Service Director, Berisha has occupied every single institution.

“here are no more independent institutions in Albania, but sections of the Democratic Party. Now that the Secret Service went under the service of the party, Berisha will start spying and persecuting people”, the declaration says.

The RBA appealed the international factor to reconsider the relations with Prime Minister Berisha, since he is ready to damage the good relations with the US and the EU, only for his dark purposes.

Who is Visho Lika?

Vishi Lika graduated at the Tirana University for Mathematics. In 1991 he received his PhD for computer sciences and in 1993 he received a post doctorate title at the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.

From 1993 to 1997 he was a diplomat and director at the Foreign Ministry, when Berisha was president.

Since 2009 and until today he has bee the Deputy Minister of Innovation, Technology, Information and Communication, led by Genc Pollo.

Top Channel