TIRANA, April 19 – After six months of parliamentary absence, former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri returned Thursday to the Albanian parliament as an independent lawmaker.
Local media reported Tahiri entered the parliament building after the session had begun, planning to keep a 20-minute speech on prosecutorial law.
Tahiri told the media “best wishes” on Albania’s positive recommendation by the European Commission to open accession negotiations and then entered the parliament, where, local media reported, he was warmly welcomed by SP members.
Tahiri is under investigation for alleged ties with a drug trafficking gang, the Habilaj Brothers, during the time he served as minister of Interior. He is seen by Albania’s opposition as a symbol of impunity for government officials tied to crime after Socialist MPs vetoed prosecutors’ efforts to arrest Tahiri, allowing only an investigation that so far has not resulted into any public information on the charges.
The opposition left the parliament before Tahiri’s speech, only staying to talk about the country’s integration.
The opposition’s Democratic Party (DP) leader Lulzim Basha said the current reality is inspiring and extraordinary and that the European Commission’s recommendation shows the EU is determined, but added the government “has failed.”
“Our government has failed to fulfill the criteria for opening negotiations even though the Prime Minister’s vision comes from the east and not from the west. The DP has forcibly asked negotiations to open with the EU. Today the EU is also a savior of the country’s economic and social disaster. Today is not the time to party, but reflect on our current situation,” Basha said before the DP left the seance.
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha also objected Tahiri’s presence in the session, asking for him to leave and calling him “the main drug person in the Balkans along with Edi Rama.”
“Get him out, don’t celebrate with him,” Berisha said, while he also went live on Facebook and showed online followers Tahiri sitting in the back of the parliament, before telling him to go celebrate with the Habilaj brothers.
Tahiri turned into a controversial topic since last year’s October, when Italian police arrested an Albanian-Italian criminal ring led by the Habilaj brothers.
Wiretaps made public in Albania included the Habilaj brothers mentioning Tahiri in their conversation from the time the latter was Minister of Interior.
