Head of the Independent Anti-Corruption Structure (LZHK), Dashamir Shehi, has reacted harshly to the latest developments in the clash between Prime Minister Edi Rama and Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, as well as claims of a conversation between Justice Minister Toni Gogu and the latter in a cell. If the claims are true, he said, this is an event with serious consequences for the functioning of the Albanian state.
“How can you have this kind of courage and tell the minister: go, you talk to him, or he’ll rot in prison… Why does he decide who will rot in prison?! That means there is no state here anymore; we are under the arbitrariness of one single person”, Shehi stated.
He said he has reservations about the possibility that the claims may be false, referring also to the statements of the lawyer and the people involved in this case. “I am afraid it is true. Not that such situations have not happened in Albania, they have, but not this openly”, he said.
Continuing his criticism, the head of the LZHK described the involvement of the Justice Minister in such a communication as unacceptable, comparing the situation with previous governing periods. “Even in Nano’s time he did not send the minister to negotiate; he sent some small spy”, Shehi said.