Justice resumes political fight

TIRANA, Sep 30 – There is a new fight between Prime Minister Sali Berisha and President Bamir Topi. That is reform in justice, or corruption in justice.
Premier Berisha directly accused the High Council of Justice (KLD) headed by the president for not doing enough to reform the judiciary system, a main target of international criticism on corruption.
Berisha made the criticism at the meeting of the governing Democratic Party lawmakers this Monday saying that the KLD head had not done enough reforms and asked for a more intensive work.
Berisha is happy at the moment to show that his government has achieved good results in the fight against corruption.
Albania improved its place in the ranking list of the Transparency International for 2008 from 105 to 85 this year.
Justice is a main shortcoming in the country’s walk toward membership in international institutions like NATO and the European Union and the premier said that that system was penalizing the country in its relations with the world.
On his side the president has also spoke high on the much needed reforms but little has been noticed in more than a year since he has come to the post, also in charge of the KLD.
Berisha also turned his criticism against Prosecutor General Ina Rama when he said that no judge or prosecutor had sat down ‘his ass’ at the defendants chair, mentioning on the other side that one of his vice ministers was sentenced for corruption.
Berisha repeated that he would like to lift the immunity of the lawmakers but also of the judges and prosecutors.
After voting Topi in his post last year relations between Berisha and his former deputy, now a president, have not been calm, both trying to avoid or blame each other.
Such ‘cold war’ ties between heads of the country’s two main institutions may likely result in hampering the work of other institutions.
But this ‘internal fight’ (taking into consideration the fact that Topi was chosen from the Democratic Party) is also ‘promoted’ in the political arena.
The opposition immediately reacted to Berisha’s words saying that he wanted to take all the institutions under his personal control.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama compared his words to those of the Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro adding that all this words were lies.