The Council of Immunities is preparing to gather at 19:00 in Parliament to discuss the removal of former Minister and PS deputy Saimir Tahiri’s parliamentary immunity at the request of the General Prosecution.
According to the Prosecution’s request, Tahiri is under investigation for the trafficking of narcotics by means of an organized criminal group and passive corruption, following art. 260 and 283(a)(2) of the Penal Code.
If the Council, which consists of Speaker of Parliament Gramoz Ruçi, Klotilda Bushka, Bledar Çuçi, Vasilika Hysi, Ulsi Manja, Eduard Halimi, Gent Strazimiri, Enkelejd Alibeaj, Nasip Naço, and Dhurata Çupi.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Edi Rama posted another message on Facebook trying to distance himself even more from his former right hand, whom he called “the best minister in 25 years”:
When I say I want a country with justice I mean only justice! When I say I want the truth from justice I’m not doing like those who have only joked and joke with justice for 27 years! I believe this word will all my mind and fight for the full meaning of this word, with all my heart. Justice for all and justice above all.
I hope that Saimir will prove until the end that he isn’t related to this story of criminals. But I want to learn that from the light of truth and that light I don’t have, nor the government, nor the party. Only justice has it, which has to illuminate this crossroads between words and proofs. Until the end.
It is unclear which “justice” the Prime Minister is referring to. With the vetting only recently started, the judicial system is still very much as Rama left it after his first term, but now suddenly, faced with the investigation and possible trial of his closest political associate, to whom he entrusted a large part of the PS’s electoral campaign effort, he has put his trust in “justice.”
On October 6, 2014, the Prime Minister said the following about the judicial system:
90% of Albanians believe that there is no justice in Albania. In 20 years no one has hesitated to express the goodwill to do the judicial reform, but here we are after 20 year with this justice system, with no worse place to go. We can forget the European Union accepting us with this justice system. […]
Citizens […] are murdered and violated again by these judges and prosecutors within the doors of the courts.
And at the opening of the electoral campaign on May 18, 2017, he said the following:
We said that the elections are not a game of parties. We have accepted to postpone the elections a week, within the Constitution and the law to win the battle… the corrupt judges and prosecutors receive today a clear message that their days in the justice system are numbers.
And yet here we are… with “corrupt” prosecutors investigating Rama’s best buddy for drug trafficking, organized crime, and corruption, and him appealing to the “truth” and “justice” that he has banished from his own country. Almost Shakespearian, if it weren’t so pathetic.
