Socialist MP: Berisha should be held legally accountable

TIRANA, July 17 – Arta Dade, a well-known Socialist lawmaker, says incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha should face charges and a trial over allegations of abuse once he leaves office in September. Dade said Wednesday in an interview with Dita newspaper that “justice for all those who have abused would be meaningless unless it started with former prime minister Sali Berisha.”
She said the opposition had often made public in parliament’s sessions cases of corruption and abuse and “Sali Berisha should be the first be held accountable.”
“If we want to go ahead with the European agenda, we should start with holding legally accountable Sali Berisha as the main responsible person on abuse with power, for all the crimes not only economical but also in the environment, but also crimes involving human lives that his ministers and he himself have committed with their orders,” she said.
That is the harshest stand taken from the winners of the last national polls. Dade said they may document such abuse of power as “that is what the people are asking for and that was why we were given such a strong mandate.”
The leftist coalition has achieved a landslide victory in last month’s polls securing three-fifth of the 140 seats in the parliament, which means they may pass any law that also asks for a qualified majority (three-fifth or 84 votes). Dade said they should hand over the proof to the prosecutor’s office and also “wake up the courts.”
“If I see that such a thing is not done or that the political will is lacking, that is a very strong reason for me to hand over my (lawmaker’s) mandate,” she said. “There can be no legal state without holding accountable Sali Berisha and other abusers around him.”