TIRANA, March 20 – The newly-appointed Minister of Interior Affairs, Fatmir Xhafaj, has dismissed claims that in 1986, when he was investigator at the prosecution office in the district of Kruja, he assaulted and tortured two people under investigation for political crimes against the communist regime of the time.
Several statements regarding the case and Xhafaj’s involvement were made by the alleged victims to Albanian media, accusing Xhafaj of of using violence and torture during the interrogations. One of them went on live television to offer to come to Albania to testify against Xhafaj.
Xhafaj, issued a press release Monday and said that he was out of the judiciary system in 1985, therefore he did not participate in the acts in question and that the claims are politically motivated.
“I have never served to the structures of Sigurimi (the communist secret police) and Ministry of Interior at the time, nor in the investigation bodies part of the ministry,” Xhafaj’s statement read. “All of these claims is just some cheap slander in the framework of a political campaign initiated against me,” he said.
Xhafaj’s appointment to the helm of interior ministry has been highly opposed by the Democratic Party, whose chairman, Lulzim Basha, described it as “an act of provocation” and “an act of war against the opposition.”
“Fatmir Xhafaj will enter the ministry over our bodies,” Basha said.
In his statement, Xhafaj said he was surprised by the Democratic Party’s actions against him.
“The opposition is using the stories of two migrants, and transformed them into false testimonies, to back up false accusations made in a fake court room in the new headquarters of the Democratic Party,” he said.
Earlier last week, President Bujar Nishani said he found Xhafaj’s appointment to the task as “unsuitable,” and that he was accepting it only because the Constitution does not provide the basis to refuse appointments made the by the prime minister.
Nishani even called on the parliament to vote against Xhafaj’s appointment.
Xhafa is a member of the old guard in the Socialist Party, serving as the head of a key commission in parliament. He has spearheaded the parliamentary work on the justice reform.
In a televised interview, the chairman of the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, said that Xhafaj “had dragged the reform for over a year and a half and served to the agenda of Prime Minister Rama for capturing the judiciary system.”
Basha blamed Xhafaj for the “exclusion of the opposition from justice reform.”
In addition the opposition says as a communist-era former prosecutor, Xhafa should not be in public life at all, let alone having a powerful cabinet seat.
A photo of young Xhafa with communist dictator Enver Hoxha went viral on social media after his appointment became public.
