The ruling Socialist Party (PS) has withdrawn its proposal to stop prosecutors from arresting MPs if they fail to present the case-related evidence to the parliament.
In January 2018, PS MPs had proposed to amend the parliamentary regulation in order to include this requirement for the Prosecution Office before they seek parliamentary authorization to arrest an MP.
The proposal was first floated after Parliament denied a direct request of the General Prosecution Office to arrest former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri.
Parliament’s upholding of Tahiri’s parliamentary immunity followed a quasi-court hearing in which prosecutors were interrogated by MPs about their evidence in the Tahiri case. Prosecutors were put in a bad position, as they could not present the evidence in front of MPs and TV cameras.
Yesterday, during a meeting of the Committee of Legal Affairs, socialist MPs Ulsi Manja and Vasilika Hysi stated that they had withdrawn from their previous proposal.
However, the committee adopted other amendments proposed by the PS. Some of the changes included limiting the discussion time for MPs to only 10 minutes, and reducing the minimum number of MPs needed to initiate a parliamentary session from 71 to 15 MPs.
The amendments will be put to the vote in parliament on July 18th.
