The Tirana Municipal Council met this Thursday, but the transfer of Mayor Erion Veliaj from the Durrës detention facility to the one in Fier received particular attention. Democrat Ilda Zhulali said Veliaj was sent to Fier over a Facebook status.
”Toni Gogu transferred him to Fier without any official document and has put him in isolation, over a Facebook status. Today the Council must demand Rama’s resignation, an investigation into police violence, and a ban on tear gas in residential areas of Tirana. The approval of soft loans should be suspended until we learn how many of the past beneficiaries have been left with homes”, Zhulali said, among other things.
Another Democratic councillor, Fabian Topollaj, said it is an obligation toward Albanians to make public what is happening to the Mayor of Tirana. ”I may be the only one who doesn’t have Erion Veliaj’s number, but we are obliged to work with him. The Constitutional Court has left him in office. We have a duty to say what is happening to him, that he is isolated and cannot carry out his duties”, Topollaj said, among other things.
Socialist councillor Halit Valteri raised concern about the conditions of detention, calling for verification of his rights and health needs. “No detention measure should serve as a justification for inhuman treatment”, he stated, requesting answers from the Ministry of Justice and the prisons directorate.
Meanwhile, Democrat Dorjan Teliti described the transfer of Veliaj as a politically motivated move, criticizing the way it was carried out without prior notice. “They take him and carry him there to Fier, they pack him up”, Teliti said, calling for accountability for the orders and the manner of the transfer.