TIRANA, Jan. 29 – Albanian prosecutor Bujar Sheshi, also member of the newly established High Prosecutorial Council, denied on Monday that he was a recruit of communist former State Security structures before the 90s.
“I declare with full responsibility before you and before the law that I’ve never been a secret collaborator of the former Albanian State Security,” said Shehini at the HPC meeting.
With this complete denial he has today filed a lawsuit against the Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents (AIFSSD) on the Prosecution.
According to a decision by the the AIFSSD, it appears that a information was uncovered on a person named Bujar Rasim Shesha, who was a former State Security collaborator under the pseudonym Venus.
Although Sheshi’s generalities show his father name is Ramiz instead of Rasim, authorities seem convinced that despite the change, the file belongs to prosecutor Sheshi.
“The aim is not to simply target who I am as retaliation for the issues I have investigated or represented as a prosecutor, or for the thoughts I have shown as a HPC member on the criteria that candidates must meet for the Prosecutor General, but to hit and pressure the entire HPC as a body now that we have arrived at the decisive moment of fully establishing SPAK and appointing a Prosecutor General,” Sheshi said during the meeting.
Verification of HPC members’ past is part of the criteria they must meet.
On Sunday, the country’s opposition Democratic Party denounced nine additional names under allegations of ties with the country’s former communist regime, saying they are now appointed to work at the country’s State Information Service.
As for Sheshi, DP lawmakers said he should be ousted, and temporary General Prosecutor Arta Marku should go with him over accusations the vetting bodies are just part of a mafia scheme to blackmail the new justice bodies being created under the country’s justice reform.
The DP accused the the truth on Sheshi only came out after he voted against Marku to return two ousted prosecutors back to duty.
“Bujar Sheshi should be ousted! He does not meet the criteria to be a HPC member. Arta Marku should also be immediately dismissed because she has violated the law and, knowingly, has manipulated the process of setting up the HPC,” DP lawmaker Gent Strazimiri told local media.
Explaining its position, the General Prosecutor’s Office, which is tasked with examining the fulfillment of candidates’ criteria, explained that Sheshi under his legal responsibility had completed a form denying he had been a former Security associate, and that the referral to the Authority on former State Security Documents was made immediately after he passed the justice reform’s vetting process back in October, while the authority’s response only arrived a few days earlier.
The General Prosecutor’s Office explained that waiting for a response by the authority was not a deterrent to summoning the prosecutors’ assembly which elected the HPC members.
AIFSSD: Sheshi’s communist past has been proven
Head of the AIFSSD Genta Mara Sula told the Voice of America on Tuesday that Sheshi’s ties with the former State Security services has been proven beyond any doubt and that the legal acts taken against him were based on documented evidence, rather than politically motivated reasons.
“This concerns a person who can not be part of democratic justice institutions because of his cooperation with State Security during dictatorship, but is his right to file a complaint to the prosecutor,” said Sula.
She dismissed his allegations of political backlog in the institution’s activity, which has so far verified over 1,500 people – only five of them have complained and only one decision has been withdrawn.
The law prevents those persons who before July 2, 1991 were members of the State Security, associates or favored the State Security from becoming members of the High Prosecutorial Council today.
