TIRANA, March 20 – The investigative parliamentary commission established to look into ties of politics and cannabis cultivation, including the case of former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri, officially begun operating on Monday, while the aim of the investigation and preliminary work plan will be arranged within a week.
The head of the commission and Democratic Party MP, Edi Paloka, said the opposition has requested faster investigative actions to be taken, especially on the activities of ex Minister of Interior Tahiri.
The investigative commission was officially established “to check the actions or inactions of state bodies in the prevention and attack of the phenomenon of cultivating and trafficking illegal narcotics, including the case for which the prosecution is investigating former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri.”
The deputy head of the commission is Socialist Party MP Ermonela Felaj, while the commission itself is made up of five majority and five opposition members.
The commission’s Socialist members asked for the next meeting to be held next week, when they plan to go over documents and regulations.
The commission is expected to investigate in the course of six months, according to Paloka, the alleged ties of Tahiri with leaders of an international drug trafficking ring — the Habilaj brothers.
The Serious Crime Prosecution started investigations on Tahiri since last October, when his name was mentioned in the phone surveillance of the Habilaj brothers, who are Tahiri’s cousins and were arrested in Italy for drug trafficking.
Tahiri denied these accusations in the past, saying the only thing linking him to his cousins was that he illegally sold his car to them, which they later used to traffic narcotics and conduct other dubious travels in the band’s service.
Albania’s investigative commissions have generally had a history of failure, because MP members are divided into groups and provide contrasting reports that give no additional or deeper insight to the prosecution on the cases they investigate.
