TIRANA, May 21 – The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SPAK) has launched an official investigation into the demolition of the National Theater following the denunciation made by the Alliance for the Protection of the Theatre.
Edvin Kondili, assigned as the prosecutor who will investigate the case, has reportedly seized the official documents regarding the procedure which was followed by the Municipality of Tirana to demolish the National Theatre.
SPAK has merged both of the Alliance’s lawsuits in the investigation, thus including the denunciation against the engineers who signed the decision to demolish the building of the Theatre.
Last week, the Municipal Council decided to demolish the National Theater during a closed online meeting, after approving a proposal by the Construction Institute in March 2018 and a report on May 13 this year. Prior to that, the government transferred its land from the Ministry of Culture to the municipality of Tirana. The National Theatre was officially demolished in the early morning hours of Sunday, triggering protests in the capital city. In Tuesday’s protest, Director Robert Budina, member of the Alliance for the Protection of the National Theatre, invited citizens to gather near the offices of SPAK at 11 a.m. on Thursday, demanding an official investigation into the demolition of the Theatre.
The Alliance for the Protection of the Theater filed a lawsuit against the Municipal Council regarding their decision to demolish the National Theater.
The Alliance accused the engineers of the Institute of Construction of abusing their power, claiming that the proposal to demolish the Theater building was made without them having visited or inspected the facility. According to the Alliance, the proposal was based only on documents dating back to 2018, which lack essential elements for the control process; No laboratory analysis and no calculations on the central construction of the facility are included.
The Alliance said that the report which was approved by the Municipal Council, was an illegal document based on false data and called on the Prosecution Office to investigate legal violations conducted by the engineers.
Furthermore, prior to the demolition of the Theatre, President Meta filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court against the government’s decision to transfer ownership of the land upon which the Theatre stood, to the Municipality of Tirana. According to Meta, the action was unconstitutional and therefore should have been repealed. However, the Municipality continued on with the demolition of the building on Sunday.
