Parliament to discuss lifting immunity of its lawmakers

TIRANA, Sep. 24 – The parliament will discuss a draft law on lifting the parliamentary immunity for all lawmakers within the next three weeks, something proposed by the governing Democrats following the opposition requests for one of its members to appear at the prosecutor’s office. The opposition says that Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha should go to the prosecutor’s office to respond to alleged corruption when he led the Transport Ministry. The Democrats responded by offering the draft law on lifting the parliamentary immunity, but denying that Basha must appear at the prosecutor’s office, referring to their accusation against Prosecutor General Theodhori Sollaku as the main obstacle. They consider him part of the crime and very biased against them because of those charges. The parliament also decided to approve the creation of three investigative committees on the privatization procedure of Albtelekom, the procedure of the direct public procurement and government’s acts on concessions.