Speaker wants more documentation from Prosecutor General

TIRANA, June 3 – Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli asked Prosecutor General Ina Rama on Tuesday to provide more documentation to support her request for lifting the immunity of former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu, leader and lawmaker for the governing Republican Party, regarding his role in the March 15 blast in Gerdec which killed 26 and injured 302 persons.
Topalli sent a letter to Rama saying the file sent to parliament lacked the documentation to prove charges of abuse of post and they did not include information about the armed forces in that investigation.
Mediu resigned three days after the blast.
Topalli also wrote that Mediu had proven, with some 30 documents, that the armed forces were involved in the dismantling process.
Speaking to the parliamentary Council of Rules last Saturday Mediu presented a series of documents to prove he was not to blame for the blast since the army had approved the dismantling process at that former tank unit base close to Tirana.
Mediu also said he could be investigated, adding he always considered himself not to have immunity in this case.
But he strongly accused Rama of seeking to legally blame him in an irresponsible way and being tendentious in her request to the parliament to lift his immunity.
The Speaker asked for documents connected to the process of dismantling armaments carried out by the public company, Meico, the duties held by the army chief-of-staff in connection to the blast, the documents linking the former minister with the armed forces, and others connected to the case. However, the issue has turned into a contentious political controversy. The opposition has begun procedures asking for the removal of Topalli from her post.
They claim that Topalli, herself, has committed anti-constitutional acts in the past two years and now is erecting obstacles in the Gerdec investigation. They also added she is blocking a presidential decree on the nomination of five new judges of the Supreme Court.
“The assembly has turned into a house of corruption,” claimed Erjon Brace of the opposition Socialists, saying Topalli has blocked much of parliament’s business to assist Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the governing Democratic party.
“Berisha and Topalli are now, every day, committing crimes by blocking the investigation of the state crime of the century in Gerdec,” said Brace. The Socialists claimed that Berisha was responsible for the Gerdec blast. At the same time, Rama said she was not hiding any documentation requested by the parliament. Lawmakers of the governing coalition have accused her of hiding documents and continuing to present other documents which have nothing to do with the case.