26 minutes agoAlbania's Assembly withdrew its immunity to Saimir Tahiri
Periskopi(9 years ago)
(9 years ago)Albania's Assembly has withdrawn its immunity from former interior minister, Saimir Tahiri, suspected to be involved in a drug trafficking ring. Today Albanian lawmakers voted to allow prosecutors to question Mr. Tahiri and to check his residence, but not even to arrest him. Saimir Tahiri [...]
Albania's Assembly has withdrawn its immunity from former interior minister, Saimir Tahiri, suspected to be involved in a drug trafficking ring.
Today Albanian lawmakers voted to allow prosecutors to question Mr. Tahiri and to check his residence, but not even to arrest him.
Saimir Tahiri was interior minister until March this year and remains Socialist Party MP in Albania's Parliament, the AP agency from Tirana reports.
Prosecutors have linked Mr. Tahiri to a criminal group suspected of trafficking large quantities of cannabis. Some of the leaders of this group are currently arrested in Italy.
Prosecutors had sought his arrest.
Saimir Tahiri has dismissed the accusations of having anything to do with this criminal group.
Enkeleed Alibeaj from the opposition Democratic Party said Tahiri would have to be arrested and investigated for using dirty money for financing the Socialist Party's election campaign earlier this year.
In the post-communism period, combating drug trafficking and organised crime is a challenge for Albania, which since 2009 is a member of NATO, and aims to start talks on full membership in the European Union, the AP reports.
