Albanian parliament votes to oust prosecutor-general

TIRANA, July 24 – Albanian parliament voted Monday to oust Prosecutor-General Theodhori Sollaku for mishandling and abusing his post, a move that should be then approved by the country’s president.
Parliament’s Democratic Party-led majority of Prime Minister Sali Berisha voted 79 in favor with one against to approve a 200-page report following a two-month investigation into some 80 allegations against Sollaku, also saying he had cost the government million of dollars in damages. Parliamentarians of the opposition led by the Socialist Party boycotted the voting in a sign of protest saying the investigation broke the constitution, laws and parliamentary procedures.
The report said it found Sollaku cost the government US$20 million in damages paid to unfairly imprisoned persons, did not start or suspended penal procedures, did not extradite criminal suspects and failed to declare personal private properties.
“Prosecutor-General defended his links with the criminal world stronger than lawyers so that he could earn money from the drug and murder world,” said Berisha. “I call on you to distance yourselves from him.”
The opposition opposed the whole process as a violation of the constitution. “The investigative process is illegal, in full contradiction to the constitution, laws and the parliamentary procedure,” said an opposition report. “We remain concerned that if that report (to fire Sollaku) is accepted that would legalize and would be a direct break of the democratic standards.”
Sollaku himself has accused Berisha, whom he has served as adviser when the latter was president in 1992-1997, of waging a political attack against him that he called “premeditated, illegal and unfair,” accusing him of trying to take control of Albania’s independent institutions.
Parliament has the power to dismiss a prosecutor-general with a vote if he is found to have broken the law or is unable to carry out his duties due to illness.
The president must ratify any decision.
Sollaku, 43, was elected by parliament in 2002. He served as Berisha’s legal adviser when Berisha previously served as president from 1992-97.