In a marathon 5-hour session, the head of the Special Prosecution Office, Altin Dumani, faced dozens of questions from MPs during an annual report to the Assembly. He called the attacks coming to this structure from politics as inspiring threats from criminal elements, while insisting on the need for Constitutional amendments that would guarantee special prosecutors the possibility of re-election to the post.
All independent and legally established institutions presented their annual reports to parliamentary committees during October, but the report of the Special Prosecution Office, SPAK, received particular interest from MPs and the public.
On Tuesday afternoon, the third in a series of reports before the Laws Committee and the newly created Committee for "Civic Initiatives, Cooperation and Institutional Oversight" was the report of the head of this structure, Altin Dumani, accompanied by prosecutors Adnan Xholi and Klodian Braho.
More than 20 deputies from both committees had prepared dozens of questions each, while the session lasted beyond the scheduled time for about 5 hours.
In front of MPs from both sides of politics, Dumani asked the Assembly to protect the independence and integrity of SPAK from the risk of external pressure coming to prosecutors from politics, the media and criminal groups.
Political attacks on SPAK are ongoing from opposition leaders, who are facing corruption charges, but this year attacks also came from Prime Minister Edi Rama after the arrest of one of his government’s most senior figures, Tirana Mayor Erjon Veliaj. An unprecedented protest was held by socialists at the entrance to the Special Prosecution Office following the arrest, while Veliaj himself from prison also led a campaign of attacks on prosecutors and judges in the media.
According to Dumani, political statements do not affect the work of prosecutors, but they serve as inspiration for threats coming from criminal elements.
“They are especially concerning when the language used goes beyond the mark and these political statements inspire elements of organized crime and make special prosecutors more vulnerable,” he said, adding that “whenever political attacks increase, threats against prosecutors also increase.”
While deputies from the socialist majority were more reserved in the number of questions and without political overtones, accompanied by evaluative parentheses about the work of the Special Prosecution Office, deputies from opposition parties asked political questions, on concrete issues for the opposition leaders under indictment, former President Ilir Meta and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
They alluded several times to the failure of prosecutors to prevent electoral crimes during the May 11 process and investigate corruption cases, demanding an account from Dumani as to why there were no investigations into the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku and for the delay in investigations into issues such as the Port of Durres, Porto Romano, etc.
The commission's deputy chairman, Oerd Bylykbashi, said that the "election task force had failed" to prevent electoral crimes, mainly in the Durrës region where he was a political leader.
Dumani acknowledged that there was room for improvement in the election task force, but he insisted that it had investigated every complaint from the opposition and that prosecutors and investigators had responded in real time to their requests for intervention, while adding that the special structure “did not have a preventive function, but criminal prosecution.”
The head of SPAK defended the work of the prosecutors and rejected allegations of failure in the investigations, while losing patience with Freedom Party MP Tedi Blushi, when in more than 30 questions and accusations of inaction or political bias in his work, he also asked him if he "had met with McGonigal", a former FBI director convicted in the US, whose file also mentions ties to the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama.
"How can you ask such a question, I don't know, to ask such a question you need a clue, a piece of information. Where is a clue, a piece of information?!" he addressed Blushi, asking him to be responsible when making false insinuations in public.
Meanwhile, Dumani previously admitted that investigative actions had been carried out domestically on this issue and that they were also awaiting legal assistance from international partners.
Several times he was asked why he "didn't investigate Edi Rama" regarding corruption cases that are on trial or under investigation, while MP Erald Kapri of the Mundësia party asked him if Rama was a "red line" for SPAK.
"We have no red line, except for evidence," Dumani replied, while he considered Rama's attacks after Veliaj's arrests as "political rhetoric."
Request for legal changes falls on deaf ears
Altin Dumani reported to the Assembly as his 3-year mandate at the head of SPAK is coming to an end.
In a repeated request that remains unanswered by the Assembly, Dumani called it necessary to intervene in the Constitution in order to give special prosecutors the opportunity to re-run after the 9-year mandate.
"I will not run again after the end of my mandate, but this opportunity should exist for other prosecutors, in the interest of institutional stability," said Dumani, adding that this legal situation creates uncertainty and could jeopardize the continuity of investigations.
He also reiterated the request to increase the number of legal advisors and called for legal changes to enable SPAK to confiscate the illegal assets of criminal groups located in cryptocurrencies. According to him, 11 million euros had been confiscated by finding mechanisms with the help of European partners, while an even larger amount had been frozen, unable to be confiscated due to the lack of legal provisions.
Requests for changes to the Constitution and relevant laws have been filed with the Laws Committee for two years, along with similar proposals from other justice institutions, and the Assembly even established a majority-opposition working group at the time to advance changes to justice reform laws.
But SPAK's demands were ignored until the majority unilaterally created a special parliamentary commission, the so-called "anti-corruption" commission, which was led by MP Fatmir Xhafaj.
SPAK and other justice institutions refused to become part of this commission, thus leaving in the middle an attempt by the majority to channel possible changes in the justice reform laws as a function of this commission.
MP Xhafaj, who already heads a permanent committee with similar goals to the special committee, asked Dumani on Tuesday to submit, along with the proposals for changes, an analysis of why these changes are necessary.
"What are the reasons that should compel the legislator to support it?" he asked Dumani, further demanding to know whether the reasons for these changes came as "the assessment of the entire body of prosecutors or simply the opinion of SPAK."
The head of SPAK, for his part, showed willingness to cooperate more closely with the Parliament through more frequent contacts and not only in annual reports. /BIRN/
