Albanian parliament will vote on lifting the parliamentary immunity of former deputy prime minister Arben Ahmetaj on Friday, paving the way for his arrest, however, he is believed to have left the country.
On Wednesday, the Council of Mandates agreed to authorise parliament to vote on the issue, with the Democratic Party demanding a Thursday vote, and the Socialist Party, home to Ahmetaj before his indiscretion, called for it to be pushed until Monday.
During a debate in parliament on Thursday, the opposition asked it to be included in the agenda, something called illegal by the ruling party. After some four hours of debate, which Ahmetaj’s party insisted on being held on Monday, they eventually withdrew from their position.
Following a meeting of the Conference of Speakers, initiated by former chief whip and newly appointed Interior Minister Taulant Balla, it was decided to vote on Friday.
Ahmetaj is accused by the Special Court of Corruption and Organised Crime of at least six counts of corruption and more than one incident of money laundering. According to the prosecution, he benefitted from almost half a million euros via the fictitious sale of real estate and fictitious invoices involving two businessmen linked to companies in a corrupt incinerator deal.
The incinerators affair saw the government issue three concessions for the construction and operation of waste incinerators in Fier, Tirana, and Elbasan to a company with no experience in such matters and no demand.
First published in Exit, investigations revealed that the contracts would see the company being paid for every day the incinerators were not burning waste, even during construction. This has seen millions in taxpayers’ money be ploughed into them, to the benefit of those behind them, with nothing in the way of results.
So far, two other former government officials, Alqi Blako and Lefter Koka, have been arrested and are in prison awaiting trial.
Ministers also called for the presence of Prime Minister Edi Rama. His political opponents insist he must have had knowledge of the scandal, and they also decried an incident last weekend where close family members of Socialist MP Rrahman Rraja were filmed beating a member of the public with baseball bats.
The chairman of the DP group, Gazment Bardhi, presented the opposition’s demands, arguing that “the affair of the incinerators is an affair of the government, it is an affair of Edi Rama and he must come and give an account”.
Bardhi insisted that granting the authorisation for his arrest was an urgent matter and could not be postponed until next week.
“Altin Dumani said that for a week, Arben Ahmetaj, with his power as a deputy, has intimidated and tried to destroy evidence, and the prosecution demands his immediate arrest to avoid the disappearance of evidence,” he said.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Lindita Nikolla, refused to put the request to the vote with the argument that it violated the procedures provided in the regulations.
“The regulation says that the council drafts a report within two weeks, the report is being worked on; it has not been distributed to the deputies,” she said and added that deputy Ahmetaj had to be notified to be heard in the session.
“The MP has not been informed about the session; we cannot bring the process to a standstill due to parliamentary irresponsibility”, she added.
Opposition MPs noted that Ahmetaj is no longer in the country and is believed to have travelled to Greece a week ago, hours before SPAK gave its request to lawmakers.
“For a chief executive, there can be no more serious and immoral event than the escape of his deputy, this is the lowest and most humiliating standard for a society,” said former prime minister Sali Berisha.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
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