In April 2018, the Albanian parliament passed a “code of conduct” for its MPs. This code dictated that an MP shouldn’t abuse his parliamentary immunity by using it as a means to prevent a possible arrest.
Six months later, the Socialist majority passed a commentary on this code of conduct, via which the article prohibiting abuse of immunity seems to be interpreted entirely differently.
The commentary, named “A Detailed Instruction on Parliamentary Conduct”, was passed by the Parliamentary Bureau following a proposal quietly put forward by General Secretary Genc Gjonçaj last September, and it implies that a potential demand of the Prosecution Office’s for the arrest of an MP may even constitute a conspiracy to destabilize or compromise the impartiality of the parliament.
This document takes it upon itself to interpret existing legislation and current procedures of removing parliamentary immunity at the request of the General Prosecution Office, declaring that this procedure “constitutes a verifying filter” aimed at fending off the possible risk that this arrest warrant would be part of a conspiracy to destabilize.
This seems to be the Socialists’ second attempt in only a few months to strengthen parliamentary immunity, coming on the heels of the Socialist majority’s dismissal of the Prosecution’s request to arrest former minister Saimir Tahiri.
“This procedural mechanism is a special legal protection, in cases of a request for their arrest, when their freedom is limited in any form, or a search of their domicile by the accusing organ, and serves as a verifying filter, in case the request aims at pressuring, destabilizing, or infringing upon the institution’s independence,” the document states.
“The procedural dispositions, which provide the rules and manners in which the authorizations for limiting the rights of an MP will be reviewed and granted, are intended to verify, via these procedures, whether requests filed by organs representing other independent powers, aim or attempt to, through the attack of one’s person, damage or impede the institution’s regular functions or independence.”
In January of this year, the head of the Socialist parliamentary group Taulant Balla proposed an amendment to the parliamentary rules, arguing that the procedure of immunity lifting was unclear. Per his amendment, the Prosecution would have to present “evidence” alongside the request for an MP’s arrest, whereas the parliament (i.e., the parliamentary majority) would be granted the right to decide on the validity of this evidence.
Socialists seem to have withdrawn the proposal following objections from the opposition, who branded it an initiative that intends to ascribe the role of a judge to the head of the parliamentary majority.
The Socialists are the first political force to face a direct request from the General Prosecution for the arrest of an MP outside of flagrant circumstances, that of former Minister of Interior Affairs Saimir Tahiri who, at the time, was under investigation both in Albania and Italy for collaborating with the international drug trafficking organization known as the “Habilaj brothers.”
The parliamentary Code of Conduct is a document passed in April of this year, which states that an MP shouldn’t “abuse” his immunity “in order to prevent justice.”
Cases of parliamentary immunity abuse aren’t unheard of. In November 2014, the Albanian police was carrying out an anti-drug trafficking operation, known as “Vilun Valley.” Documents discovered later by the media revealed that former MP Mark Frroku had used his parliamentary immunity to prevent the police from arresting a suspect.
The same cannot be said, however, of the assumptions made in the Code of Conduct commentary. We have yet to find out about a case in which the Prosecution asked for the arrest of an MP as part of a conspiracy to destabilize the parliament.
This article was first published on Reporter.al, translation by Exit.
