Minister of Interior Fatmir Xhafaj has refused to make any official declaration regarding the drug-trafficking scandal involving bribes allegedly paid by Moisi Habilaj to former Minister of Interior and Xhafaj’s predecessor Saimir Tahiri.
Asked by journalists this morning whether he would undertake action based on the Italian police report made public by the PD, Minister Xhafaj, whose own brother is internationally wanted for drug trade, stated:
These are issues that belong to justice system, there is no reason why the Ministry and the minister would speak.
It is a question that does not belong to the State Police, it is a question that belongs to the justice system. It has been initiated and will be continued by the Italian system.
Minister Xhafaj’s response follows the revelation of wiretapped conversation of Moisi Habilaj which mention Tahiri as the recipient of €30,000 and as earnings millions per months, which he spent on the electoral campaign of 2013. Tahiri appears to have been the protector of Habilaj and his brother, who are his cousins.
The response also appears to contradict Prime Minister Edi Rama’s demand from yesterday, in which he stated:
Albania and the Albanians today want and deserve to know the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth. That’s why all executive organs need to go to the bottom of this story without losing time, to throw a full light on the facts.
The police is one of those executive organs.
Moreover, a few weeks ago Minister Xhafaj announced an extra-legal campaign to “vet” the entire police forces. But now that he actually has a dossier full of condemning material available to him, he has chosen to undertake no action whatsoever to reveal the “protectors of the Habilajs” within the ranks of the police.
