Albanian Defenses Minister, is spying on opposition

TV Top Channel
10/07/2012

The opposition has increased its suspicions against the Minister of Defense, Arben Imami, by launching accusations even more severe than the arms trafficking.

After the Socialist MPs were not allowed to perform an inspection at this Ministry, the Socialist leader, Edi Rama, declared that the opposition knows very well what Minister Imami is trying to hide, and that the arms trafficking that was discovered lately is only the tip of the iceberg of the corruption and flagrant constitutional violations.

“We have reliable information from the Ministry of Defense that the newly discovered arms traffic is only the tip of the iceberg of an illegal activity that extends even to the usage of the army to spy on the opposition for political reasons. So, the immunity cannot defend the opposition from illegal interceptions. I guarantee the violators that they will respond”, Rama declared.

Before Rama reported the affair of the Ministry of Defense, the Socialists were not allowed to enter the Ministry of Defense for an inspection from the Parliamentary Commission of Security. The vice chairman of this commission, the Socialist MP Ilir Gjoni, considered the Ministry’s decision as a constitutional coup.

“We faced a flagrant violation of the constitution, which I would call a Constitutional coup. It is regrettable that this Minister, who was among the people who planned the Constitution, infringes it in the most severe way. In these 20 years, the Parliamentary Commission of Security has never had a similar case. I have worked with Mr. Imami and I used to have another impression about him”, Ilir Gjoni declared.

The ministry answered to the accusations through their General Secretary, claiming that the Socialists had no clear agenda for the inspection.

“Their claim that they have a regular inspection permit does not stand. I have to clarify that the Ministry of Defense answers to the Constitution and the law of the Albanian Republic. The MPs did not present their request according to the Parliamentary procedures’, declared Ervin Kulluri, General Secretary of the Ministry of Defense.

A few minutes after this rejection, other members of the opposition accused the Minister of trying to hide documentation, to the point of saying that Imami has lied the Commission in the previous hearing session. But the majority MPs proposed an inspection at the Parliament’s office, rather than at the Ministry, where the Ministry will provide any documentation that will be required.