President turns down request to answer to parliamentary commission

TIRANA, Feb. 2 – President Bamir Topi made it clear to the investigative parliamentary commission he is not to go to answer to their request on his role for the Jan. 21 deadly riot.
According to the constitution, his legal adviser said, he is not supposed to go there. In any case they should have gone to his office. Moreover he said that calling the president at the commission is unconstitutional.
The commission, created from the governing Democrats after the Jan. 21 unrest, have also heard Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Interior Minister Lulzim Basha. They will hear what Prosecutor General Ina Rama and head of the Shish intelligence police Bahri Shaqiri will say, both accused of being part of the coup, according to the premier.
They have also called opposition lawmakers and four journalists, which will very likely not respond to the call.
The commission has not legal powers, just advising ones. But it serves more to the Democrats to show that the opposition made a failed coup d’굡t, that is part of the political plot in this country.