Opposition leader calls verdict ‘dark news for Albania, Albanian democracy and parliamentarian life’
TIRANA, June 11 – Albania’s Supreme Court has dismissed a case against two Socialist lawmakers who faced charges for punching and shoving an opposition colleague in the halls of the Albanian parliament.
Arben Ndoka and Pjerin Ndreu were charged last July for the violence against Democratic Party MP Gent Strazimiri. A video from the parliament’s close circuit television cameras showed the accused MPs punching the other. Strazimiri’ case was used by the opposition Democrats as a reason to boycott parliament for months.
“The case cannot proceed, because it is not part of the criminal justice jurisdiction,” the court ruling noted, adding behavior in the parliament is the exclusive domain of the parliament’s leadership in terms of punishments for conflicts that “do not bring other serious consequences under the law.”
Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Ndreu and Ndoka to respectively 8 months and 1 year imprisonment and to subsequently convert the sentences to community service duties. They could have also lost the ability to seek reelection.
After the issuance of the verdict Ndreu said he was regretful of the incident.
“I apologize for that moment of bad temper,” he said, adding he did not believe there was a criminal case to be made and that it was a political effort to attack him. “The court’s decision showed that this attempt was voided.”
The opposition protested the court’s decision. Its head, Lulzim Basha, called the verdict “dark news for Albania, Albanian democracy and parliamentarian life.”
“Our American and European partners have been challenged. Instead of decriminalization, as an urgent and vital need of Albanian politics and society, [Prime Minister] Edi Rama sealed his deed of criminalization of power,” Basha said in a statement.
Rama had earlier said violence of the type seen in the video had happened during parliamentary sessions in the past without the case going to court, but had agreed that it was best for Supreme Court to rule on the matter since those accused were MPs.
