TIRANA, April 25 – The opposition Democratic Party has decided to boycott Parliament for ten days in sign of protest after former Prime Minister Sali Berisha was suspended from attending Parliament last weekend following his statements calling on citizens to get armed to protect themselves against what he called gangs linked to the government.
Opposition leader Lulzim Basha said Berisha’s suspension for 10 days was illegal and had been taken in revenge against the former PM’s public denunciations of Emiljano Shullazi, a notorious alleged gang leader recently arrested on charges of intimidating one of the rector candidates for the University of Tirana and blackmailing several prominent businessmen to pay large sums of money or relinquish their property.
“In sign of protest against an unfair and unfounded decision, the [DP] parliamentary group has decided to fully boycott all parliamentary activity during this week,” said Basha.
The opposition leader accused the government of being linked to Shullazi and obstructing proceedings against him by threatening witnesses against him to withdraw.
Last Friday, the Parliament’s Bureau suspended former Democratic Party Prime Minister and current MP Berisha for 10 days for his public calls on citizens to take up arms to protect themselves from gangs. Berisha justified the call with a new law to allow weapons possessions and mentioned the American model as an example.
Gun ownership is illegal in Albania and public calls to break the law including getting armed are punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to the country’s Criminal Code.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the DP’s latest decision to boycott Parliament was an effort to prevent the long-awaited approval of the justice reform.
“The effort to criminalize the government is being supplemented by the ever increasing internal need to prevent the justice reform at any condition,” he said.
Albania’s key political forces have failed to reach consensus on the justice reform, the key requirement to open the country’s EU accession talks, after Albania became an EU candidate in mid-2014.
