TIRANA, February 15/ATA/ Socialist Party MP Fatmir Xhafaj, also chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee for Deepening Reforms for Good Governance, Anti-Corruption and the Rule of Law reacted today in the social media regarding the arrest of Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj.
He reminded that Veliaj has been voted for 3 consecutive terms by the citizens of Tirana.
“Being a lawmaker in Tirana, I have seen Veliaj’s daily work for the capital of the country, for the largest municipality, for managing all the affairs of a city that grows every day and the growing challenges it faces. I have seen the popular support that Erion Veliaj had in being elected as mayor of Tirana. Not even his most ardent opponents in politics, the media and public opinion deny this fact. I firmly believe that this is also the main reason why he is being fought so fiercely and often with blows below the belt,” wrote Xhafaj.
Further on, he emphasized the approach of the Parliamentary electoral battle, the 37 mandates in Tirana, which made the opposition focus its entire pre-electoral battle on the Tirana Municipality and directly on Erion Veliaj for months. What the opposition could not do for over 10 months and about 50 weekly and often violent protests, it achieved with a court ruling about 90 days before the elections, which imposed the security measure of “prison arrest” for the Mayor of the capital and one of the main political leaders of the Socialist Party for the Tirana region, wrote Xhafaj.
“Personally, I am one of those who believe that Erion Veliaj, as far as I know him and how I know him, is not a corrupt official. No one is infallible, but I do not see his mistakes, even if they are such, as corrupt approaches. I do not know the entire case in detail and I do not claim to know it in essence, but as far as I have read and with the knowledge I have of how this process was structured, I have my own questions about the way it began and how it was proceeded in this criminal case. I fear that we are before a case where a person and his life are investigated in order to find criminal facts against him and not before what the law allows and requires, that is, that the specific criminal offense is investigated and from there it goes to the responsibility of the specific person whose guilt or not is determined by the judicial decision-making of both levels and not by the investigator and prosecutor”, wrote Xhafaj.
Further on, Xhafaj pointed at what he appreciated as, “an unfair process in terms of procedure.”
“Let’s be clear, no one is and should not be above the law. We are all equal before the law and everyone can and should be investigated and judged regardless of political, institutional and social status. Erion Veliaj, too, undoubtedly YES”, emphasized Xhafaj.
“As a legislator, as a representative elected by the votes of the citizens of the Municipality of Tirana, I have every right to demand that all of this should be carried out with objectivity and impartiality and through a due process of law, in compliance with constitutional principles and the provisions of the criminal procedural law, always taking into consideration human rights and freedoms and undoubtedly also the public interest and public safety,” wrote Xhafaj.
He also wrote that, “In the conditions when the inventories of clothing have been released in the media market (not without purpose given in that way and with those details), public opinion deserves to be clarified about them, despite the fact that, as can be seen from the court decision made public, there is no direct connection between those “facts” and the accusation of corruption against the Mayor.”
Xhafaj concluded by writing that, “Expressing my support for Erion in his legal and political battle, I ask him, even in the current conditions of isolation, to make full transparency about the accusations raised as an obligation to public opinion, the citizens and citizens of Tirana, as well as in front of the judges who will judge him and decide on his truth.” /r.e/p.s./
