Albanian lawmakers talk about lifting former prime minister’s immunity as his supporters protest

TIRANA, Albania — Supporters of Albania‘s opposition Democratic Party protested against the government Monday while a parliamentary commission discussed whether to lift the immunity from prosecution of the party‘s leader, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Prosecutors asked lawmakers last week to strip Berisha of his parliamentary immunity because he did not abide by an order to report to them every two weeks and not travel abroad while he is being investigated for corruption.

Cordons of police officers surrounded the Parliament building Monday as a commission discussed the immunity request. If granted, the full Parliament is expected to vote Thursday to clear the way for prosecutors to put Berisha under arrest of house arrest.

Berisha, 79, was charged with corruption in October for allegedly abusing his post to help his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, buy land in Tirana owned by both private citizens and the country’s Defense Ministry, and to construct 17 condo buildings on the property.

Berisha and Malltezi each have proclaimed their innocence and alleged the case was a political transfer by the ruling left-wing Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Berisha mentioned he thought of the prosecutors’ calls for on reporting frequently and remaining in Albania to be unconstitutional.

Socialists maintain 74 of the 140 seats in Parliament, sufficient to move most of legal guidelines on their very own. Since October, Democratic Party lawmakers have frequently disrupted voting periods to protest what they are saying is the more and more authoritarian rule of the Socialists.

Last month, they lit flares and piled chairs on prime of one another in the midst of the corridor the minute Rama took his seat to vote on subsequent 12 months’s funds.

The disruptions are an impediment to much-needed reforms at a time when the European Union has agreed to start out the method of harmonizing Albanian legal guidelines with these of the EU as a part of the Balkan nation’s path towards full membership within the bloc.

Berisha pledged to take the protest from the Parliament into the streets.

“I call on each Albanian to consider their future, the country’s future. We are in a no-return battle,” he mentioned earlier than becoming a member of the tons of of protesters outdoors the constructing Monday.

Berisha served as Albania’s prime minister from 2005-2013, and as president from 1992-1997. He was reelected as a lawmaker for the Democratic Party within the 2021 parliamentary elections.

The United States authorities in May 2021 and the United Kingdom in July 2022 barred Berisha and shut relations from coming into their nations due to alleged involvement in corruption.

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