TIRANA, Sept. 15 – The opposition Democratic Party has accused Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri of having a key adviser who was sacked twice from police for improper conduct.
The adviser, Anastas Meci, the opposition says, was fired from police in 1996 and 2001 for “improper conduct” as an officer, including “mishandling of evidence.”
The ministry issued a statement saying that Meci had been sacked once for political reasons and released from ranks, not fired, the second time.
He is currently a public service employee, according to the statement, and not a member of the police force.
It is the latest accusation Albania’s opposition Democratic Party has had for Interior Minister Tahiri, who the Democrats had earlier accused of having ties to the criminal world in repeated statements in parliament and press conferences.
Tahiri has said they are false political accusations. He said his record is clear, pointing to his ministry’s successful work in fighting drug cultivation and significantly reducing the number of murders in the country.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has also offered support for the minister, praising his performance.
Democrats earlier this month sought the resignation of Interior Minister Tahiri after a former police officer went public with allegations that a vehicle owned by Tahiri had been used by alleged marijuana traffickers, who the accuser says are the minister’s cousins.
Tahiri said the claims were false and that the former police officer in question, Dritan Zagani, was a wanted man facing criminal charges of his own for leaking police information in a criminal investigation unrelated to the political accusations.
The interior minister said the accuser was on the run, had sought asylum in a Western country and was making the false accusations to bolster his asylum claim.
The accusations in parliament came largely from Sali Berisha, the former prime minister, and Tahiri met last week with Prosecutor general Adriatik Llalla to ask him to investigation all the accusations as well as Berisha’s conduct.
“I don’t have a single second of time to lose with the defamation stream that the old politics is used to,” Tahiri said after the meeting last week.
