TIRANA, Oct. 21, 2022 – Albania’s parliament voted at midnight on Thursday to amend a law on the right to information about the documents of the former communist secret police, Sigurimi, a move the ruling Socialist Party says has been brought forward to target a political rival, Freedom Party leader Ilir Meta.
The changes foresee, among other things, the removal of obstacles for the reverification of the figure of persons who have a previous clean lustration certificate, when new information appears for them, which is the case with Meta, according to the Socialists, something Meta vehemently denies.
The changes also mean the declassification and free access to all documents from Nov. 29, 1944 to July 2, 1991 that are available in all official Albanian archives.
The changes received the support of 94 MPs who were in the assembly hall.
Divided DP provides opening for ruling SP
The ruling Socialists were able to pass the votes through the faction loyal to the Democratic Party’s previous leader, Lulzim Basha. The faction is now officially led by DP MP Enkelejd Alibeaj. The main opposition DP remains divided in parliament after Sali Berisha’s majority faction took over the administration of the party earlier this year. Berisha loyalists and Freedom Party MPs boycotted the midnight vote.
At a Friday morning press conference, Freedom Party Chairman Meta called Prime Minister Rama’s move to push forward the lustration law changes an “own goal.”
“Without any doubt, it will cost him a lot,” Meta said, referring to Rama. “But he has far bigger things to deal with than this. At the same time, the name of the Freedom Party terrifies him, disturbs his sleep, because he knows that in any case his end will be what he is thinking of doing to others, to those who only gave him the opportunity to do something good for this country and that he has exploited by destroying with treachery, to those who have given him this opportunity, including the SP itself, which he has reduced to a miserable state.”
Rama came to power in 2013 thanks to Meta’s support, but their relationship has soured since, and Meta’s Freedom Party is currently strongly allied with Berisha’s Democratic Party.
Files authority under scrutiny
The genesis of these changes was a letter that the Sigurimi Files Authority sent to the parliament at the end of July, where it was noted that the name of former president Ilir Meta “appears in the documents created by the structures of the former State Security (Sigurimi).”
Meta has categorically rejected any possibility that he had been an associate of the former secret police. He has accused the authority of manipulating the file, later filing a lawsuit against the institution, while denouncing prosecutors’ refusal to follow through with criminal charges on the matter
In its letter, the authority also proposed a legal intervention, to remove the obstacle for the reverification of figures that were previously provided with certificates of purity by the Mezini and Bezhani Commissions, which operated in the second half of the 1990s. The authority had proposed this change to the parliament several times before. But only now the Socialist majority decided to act quickly, apparently prompted by the appearance of the name of the former president in a file.
In his five years at the head of the state, relations between then President Meta and the Socialists had been extremely tense. Two initiatives of the Socialists for his dismissal proved unsuccessful..
PM confirms Meta is target
Rama made it clear the changes to the law were specifically being done to target Meta and his party.
“Why doesn’t the Freedom Party come here to vote? Why? For a very simple reason, because it is exactly that party … that never wanted to open the files … We are here to remember that a citizen called I.M. brought us to this process.”
The file in question alludes that someone with the initials I.M. spied on a fellow student when the two of them were living in a dorm at the University in Tirana. Meta, however, never lived in the dorms. And there are other inconsistencies too, say the experts looking at the file — with government critics saying the file is clearly a political tool to try to neutralize Meta as an opposition leader after he recently returned at the helm of a major opposition movement he has re-branded from the Socialist Movement for Integration into the Freedom Party.
‘Fabricated stories’ – Meta says on alleged ties
Meta had earlier told Tirana Times in an interview that Rama was resorting to “dirty tricks” of “fabricated stories” to attack him as he rejoined active political life after leaving the office of the president.
The man whose file was involved in the report, Filip Talo, has come out publicly to say the former president was not involved and the initials in the file are tied to a dormitory friend that happens to have the same initials as the Freedom Party chairman.
Radical intervention could have future consequences on who can run for office
SP and Alibeaj’s group used the opportunity to demand a more radical intervention in the legacy of the feared Sigurimi, demanding that any political candidate get a clean certificate from the authority before they can run. The aim is ending or stopping political careers if they are proven to have been associated with the former secret police.
Alibeaj, who is a member of the community of Albanians that were persecuted under the communist regime, said they had won more transparency in opening all files and allowed the authority to engage in the process of identifying and recovering the remains of missing and executed persons as well as have the authority to “verify the proposals for awarding decorations, titles of honor, medals and local titles of honor, naming streets, squares, public spaces, and historical cultural monuments.”
Related article:
Editorial: Legislating away democracy on made up allegations sets a terrible precedent
