The Central Election Committee (KQZ) has requested the Prosecution Office for more information regarding the past convictions in Italy of deputies Aqif Rakipi (PDIU) and Gledion Rehovica (LSI). The Prosecution Office had requested the KQZ to revoke their mandates because of a violation of the decriminalization law. Both deputies have also been indicted by the Prosecution Office.
In both cases, the KQZ voted with 4–2 to obtain additional information, with the LSI member joining the PS members.
During the session, Rehovica claimed that he no longer remembers anything of his conviction for theft 20 years ago:
It’s been nearly 20 years ago and I don’t remember the details. I have not been arrested, investigated, convicted otherwise in Italy.
Asked about the fake name under which he was convicted, Kusta Mina, the LSI deputy responded:
Twenty years have passed. I have not hidden anything, I have had no reason to hide anything. The fact that I willingly gave my fingerprints is indicative. These facts block any reasoning that could hide my fake identity.
Theodhori Sollaku, lawyer of Aqif Rakipi, recalled that the request of the Prosecution Office was made under the previous Prosecutor General and the recently fired Prosecutor Rovena Gashi, suggesting that the current Prosecutor General would perhaps judge otherwise:
The decision without certification of the Prosecutor General has been made in a situation when the director of Prosecution Office was changed. There appears to have been an authorization of the former Prosecutor, but these need to be certified by the current Prosecutor General.
Gashi was fired on the day after she sent the request to revoke Rehovica’s and Rakipi’s mandates by Temporary Prosecutor General Arta Marku, in violation of the Constitution. Marku is a protégé of PS deputy Ulsi Manja, whereas Rakipi is known as a close ally of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The KQZ will also review the mandates of former deputies Omer Mamo (PDIU) and Mhill Fufi (PD) as well as Pogradec mayor Eduard Kapri.
