Constitutional Court suspends implementation of law on former secret police

TIRANA, Feb 16 – Albania’s Constitutional Court on Monday suspended the implementation of a new law barring former Communist secret police and their informers from serving as public officials until it got advice from the Venice Commission.
The international community has urged Albania to change the content of the law which fails to comply with international standards of democracy.
The Court decided that the application of that law “could bring consequences to the normal functioning of the state of law and also violate individual’s fundamental human rights and freedom,” adding it would ask the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, for “an ‘Amicus curiae’ opinion for the law as an independent and specialized institution.”
The new law entered into force last month despite strong objections from opposition parties which said it could be exploited by conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha to cover his personal and his cabinet’s corruptive cases, and that it also violated at least 28 articles of the Constitution.
The opposition took the issue to the Constitutional Court earlier last month.
For more than four decades until 1990, Albania was governed by a xenophobic Communist dictatorship with a powerful and widely feared Sigurimi secret police force.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the governing Democratic Party that promoted the law angrily reacted to the court’s decision saying its judges had a conflict of interest as some of them were affected by the new law.
But he also acknowledged they had to abide by the law though calling the court’s verdict as ‘absurd.’
Reacting to that Valentina Leskaj, main opposition Socialist Party parliamentary group head, said that Berisha should keep silent and get rid of his habit of pressurizing the constitutional institutions.
Last week the Council of Europe sent two co-rapporteurs to Tirana to meet with local leaders on the law. They expressed their surprise on how Albania had not asked for advice on the controversial law. They added they were not against the law but its content that ran counter to democratic principles.
They also said they would ask the Venice Commission to give advice on the law.
The Czech ambassador to Tirana from the country which keeps the European Union rotating presidency also said that the EU recalled “that the new Law on Lustration gives rise to concern with regard to certain aspects on both procedure and substance. Wider consultation and consensus would have been appropriate prior to the passing of the law. Therefore, the EU encourages the Government of Albania to reconsider the legal and political ramifications of the Lustration Law.”
It said that the EU urged Tirana “to safeguard – also in the process of lustration – the independence of constitutional institutions, in particular the Constitutional Court, and of judges and prosecutors.”
“The EU considers that the Constitutional Court should be able to rule on the constitutionality of the law before it is implemented. The EU also stresses the importance of ensuring an inclusive political dialogue.”
“The EU will continue to closely follow developments,” the statement concluded.
Albania, seeking closer ties and eventual membership of the European Union, also is sensitive to international criticism of its political reforms.