Basha asks prosecutor general’s collaboration on Durres-Kukes road friction

TIRANA, Oct. 21 – Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha sent a letter Sunday to Prosecutor General Theodhori Sollaku asking him to be confronted on the alleged corruption issue involving the construction of Rreshen-Kalimash segment of the Durres-Kukes road project.
Sollaku has asked the parliament to lift Basha’s immunity in an effort to investigate him on alleged abusive acts Basha is alleged to have undertaken on the project when he was transport minister until April this year. The parliament has yet to decide on his immunity. Immunity for Sollaku has turned into a contentious political issue. Basha and his governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha consider Sollaku’s actions an effort to stop the parliament’s investigation of the prosecutor general whom they openly charge as being linked to crime. The opposition says that the parliament should lift Basha’s immunity and let the prosecutor’s office proceed with the investigation of Sollaku, who they have claim has operated with abusive and corruptive acts from the start. Such friction is also noted in Basha’s open letter to Sollaku, with which he asks only for a ‘confrontation’ and repeats his political accusations about the prosecutor. The media has also reported that Basha has refused to go to the prosecutor’s office in at least two other cases when he has been asked. Basha does not deny that, but insists he did not meet with Sollaku due to his busy schedule.