Dismissal of President / Dervishaj: Assembly falsifies date of order to convene plenary session to meet deadlines

Dervishaj says that the Assembly has flagrantly violated the law, falsified the document to meet the 48-hour deadline that the Assembly regulations say must be met, to bring to a plenary session a decision of parliamentary committees.

He points out that on May 6, 2021, the order was signed to convene the plenary session to approve the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry. To be called on this date, the report on this decision must have been approved 48 hours ago, on May 5.

“When it was our turn to make our submissions, the Assembly felt weak and immediately reactivated the next day with a letter. The first violation or manipulation, the order that the Assembly issued on February 4 to the Constitutional Court. As each order has defined in item 20 the agenda, which includes the draft decision on the report and the proposal of the committee on legal issues. This additional evidence was not requested by the Constitutional Court or the Presidency. We made a comparison of the content of this order with the order that the Assembly itself has deposited on its website since May 2021. We no longer have the date 05/05 but 06/05. Is this related to one of the violations? All doubts lead there“, He said.

According to him, the meeting of the Law Commission was held on May 6, 2021, while in the document submitted last Friday a forgery was made and it is said that the order for the approval of the report of this commission was made on May 5, 2021.

Dervishaj, who also published the documents that according to him prove this falsification, says that this order that the Assembly submitted on February 4, 2022, some changes have been made in essence.

“All these actions of the Assembly have nothing to do with a manipulation of evidence. The Assembly sought to justify in the Constitution that the President erred in claiming that they were in violation of the deadlines for the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry and for the approval of the report of the Law Commission“, Said Dervishaj.

For the first time in its history in Albania, the Constitutional Court, within 30 days will issue a decision for or against the dismissal of Ilir Meta, as President of the Republic of Albania.

The February 7 hearing started at 10:00 and with controversy between the parties and not only. Meta’s legal representative, Bledar Dervishaj, debated with the President of the Constitutional Court on how to return the answers to the President.

President Meta was not present at this session either, but was represented by his legal advisor Bledar Dervishaj. Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the Law Commission, Klotilda Bushka, and the head of the socialist parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, appeared in the Constitutional Assembly.

In a statement to the media outside the court, Taulant Balla said that now like President Ilir Meta, as political parties and anyone else must wait in silence for the decision of the Constitutional Court.

“Decisions on dismissals or admissions are made only by the Constitutional Court. We have the obligation from this monument, that the process is closed, to respect the independence of the decision-making of the Constitutional Court. I think that from the moment the process is completed, we all have the obligation, including the President, the parties and everyone else, to maintain the institutional silence, until the Constitutional Court, within the 30-day deadline, expresses itself, with all reasoning. The process has been to be welcomed. I think any statement by me or other parties involved in the process would not do the process any good“, Said Balla.

While immediately after him, Bledar Dervishaj told reporters that the President, Ilir Meta will address the prosecution, on the issue of manipulation of evidence by the Albanian Parliament.

“The session unjustly initiated by the Assembly closed today. Unfortunately, it was proved today that the Assembly, in fulfillment of its political goals, deposited manipulated evidence only to refute the claims of the head of state. When this happens from the Albanian Parliament, imagine what we as citizens can think about what happens in other bodies. The President has decided to address the Prosecution regarding this issue. Just as it is in the right of the Assembly to initiate a parliamentary inquiry into this fact that we have identified. Even the right of the court to make a decision but to be based on the constitution and law“, Said Dervishaj.

The majority is convinced that the President has violated the Constitution by becoming part of the April 25 elections and, going further: inciting violence.

The President’s legal representatives defended themselves by opposing the entire procedure followed by the previous parliament to set up an inquiry commission to oust the President of the Republic.

They think that the institution of the President was denied the right to be heard in the Parliament before the decision was made to set up a commission of inquiry and that this commission raises them in violation of legal deadlines.

Representatives of the head of state, referring to the Constitution, underlined that the Assembly can not conduct any parliamentary inquiry in the last four months of the end of the mandate.

The Presidency initiated the defense seeking the disqualification of the entire trial panel, claiming that there were conflicts of interest and conditions of incompatibility to decide on the matter. Such a request was rejected as unfounded by the Constitutional Court.

In June last year, the Albanian Parliament voted in favor of dismissing President Meta. The Socialist majority blamed him for public statements before and during the campaign for the 2021 parliamentary elections, held on April 25, which incited violence and violated the Constitution.

The vote was based on the findings of a report drafted by an investigative commission with the participation of the opposition, set up specifically to investigate his position before and during the election campaign, the 2021 parliamentary elections.

According to the report, President Meta has violated more than 10 articles of the Constitution, which, according to the socialist majority, has led to a lack of guarantee of national unity by siding with the opposition before the April 25 elections and inciting instability and violence.

President Meta himself considered the commission of inquiry illegal, did not accept the accusations of the socialist majority, called the decision of the parliament for his dismissal unconstitutional and “orchestrated by the SP for political revenge.”

The Constitutional Court which is expected to decide on the fate of the President is not complete, after its non-functioning for about two years due to the resignation of the president and a good part of the members or expulsion from the vetting system, the Constitutional Court currently has 7 out of 9 members provided by the Constitution.

On June 9thwith 104 votes in favor, the Assembly of the last Legislature decided to dismiss the President, while now a constitutional decision is needed for Meta to be dismissed.

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