Government response: Veliaj won't be dismissed as Tirana mayor, no corruption

The answer is that not only the mayor of Tirana will not be dismissed from office, but his ban has given us the task of continuing to guarantee justice, promoting more transparency to come to truth. Whatever that”.

Standing in the same line with the position expressed today by Prime Minister Edi Rama, who said Veliaj was taken from his workplace and sent to a cell without a trial, underlines that “we are in completely different conditions from all previous cases”.

According to the government, Veliaj's arrest did not result from a concrete corruption issue for which there is an indictment.

We are ahead of a volume novel on excavations committed in his life and his wife. So, basically, we're facing a case that creates the reasonable suspicion of an investigation off the constitutional tracks and a ban on violations of democratic standards. But it's still too early to come to conclusions, so we reserve the right to take the time”.

Following the response, Erion Veliaj is said to have been dismissed as capital mayor, “to close him without trial in a cell and lock his wife and wife, mother of a six-year-old son”. That is why Prime Minister Edi Rama decided to deviate from the 5-year stance of the Socialist Party and the prime minister to make no comment in any case of the arrest of Socialist officials.

This extremely problematic fact for the entire capital, not just for the mayor as a party, but for us as guarantees of the Justice Reform and simultaneously contracts with citizens at the central and local level -- much more for Albania's metropolis -- requires a very serious reflection. And last, we would be very grateful to you and any media that instead of just reading the police novel of the indictment, shed light on the evidence that supports or not the beginning of those approximately 400 pages. ”A2