Albanian Parliament approves the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Law as part of its much disputed Justice Reform

Albanian Parliament Voting Today
Albanian Parliament Voting

Tirana 06 Oct 2016 – The Albanian Parliament has consensually approved a law which gives way to the creation of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor, an important step ahead in its milestone justice reform undertaken by this centre-left governing coalition of SP, LSI and PDIU.

Both the ruling majority and the opposition democrats voted in unanimity, after which the democrats walked out in protest of other remaining pieces of legislation which they dispute as anti constitutional.

After the so called ‘SPAK’ Bill, Parliament also voted in unanimity to establish an investigative parliamentary committee to look at the legality of the ‘IMSI-Catcher’ controversial tapping device used by Albanian police with the help of their Italian counterparts.

While the major steps of justice reform have been votes through consensus, the Democratic Party has decided to take the special and vital ‘Vetting’ law to the Constitutional Court claiming that it violates the Albanian Constitution and that PM Edi Rama’s government wants to use the reform to influence over future judicial appointments.

Earlier this week, the Democratic Party lashed out at controversial American Ambassador in Albania Donald Lu who had said that the DP referral of the Vetting Law to the Constitutional Court is wrong and that this creates the impression across Albanian public opinion that the DP is against justice reform.

I don’t expect from any Ambassador to tell me which is the constitutional duty of the Democratic Party, of the opposition or mine as a citizen. Ambassadors have their job to do, I have mine and I have done it in full conscience‘ – said DP Chairman Lulzim Basha after Lu’s comments.

The much criticized justice system in Albania will be totally restructured, with an almost ‘new constitution’ amendments package approved last July designed with international assistance to get rid of widespread corruption and root out political influence from judicial processes.

Albania gained EU candidate status in 2014 and expects to open accession talks for EU membership in the coming months. Judicial Reform is deemed crucial throughout this process.

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