Constitutional Court Says Investigating Sollaku was Illegal

TIRANA, Dec. 4 – The Constitutional Court said on Monday that the investigatory process held by the parliamentary commission was against the law, which caused an immediate negative reaction from the governing Democratic Party and satisfaction from Sollaku himself.
Albania’s Prime Minister, Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party, has said that his executive has launched a new effort to have the prosecutor-general fired, asking a new investigative committee to check whether the official had links with crime after a previous effort to have him fired had failed. President Alfred Moisiu refused a demand by Democratic Party lawmakers to have Prosecutor General Theodhori Sollaku fired, saying he had not violated the constitution. The parliament had voted in July to dismiss Sollaku, after a two-month investigation accused him of 80 offenses, including abuse of his position. The opposition also accused Berisha of seeking to take control of Albania’s judiciary and other independent institutions. Sollaku, who once served as Berisha’s political adviser, accused the prime minister of waging a political attack against him. “The Constitutional Court decision justifies the multiyear stand of the prosecutor office in complying with the constitutional and legal functions in guaranteeing independence and standards on human rights in the penal justice,” said a statement from Sollaku’s office. “Constitutional sovereignty, through this verdict, asks for reaction by the politics of conceiving and applying reforms in justice.”