Investigation into Vlora Hyseni, SP reacts: Let SPAK do its work, no one is above the law

The Socialist Party parliamentary group has reacted regarding the investigations into the former director of the State Intelligence Service, Vlora Hyseni, demanding that every suspicion raised by the prosecution body be investigated and clarified by SPAK, without interference or overlap from other institutions.

In the SP Group’s reaction it is stressed that responsibility for investigating and adjudicating the case should be left to the justice bodies, while the Assembly cannot use parliamentary oversight mechanisms to replace the prosecution’s competences.

The SP also refers to the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, arguing that the Assembly cannot use parliamentary oversight to verify evidence, determine criminal facts or individual responsibilities.

THE REACTION

Regarding the investigations into the former director of the Intelligence Service, we expect every suspicion of the prosecution body to be investigated and clarified to the end by SPAK, who must be left to do their work without any interference or overlap, through the independent process of investigation and trial. The irreversible path we have chosen is the path of independence of the justice bodies to investigate and try anyone, regardless of social status or public function. According to the now consolidated jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, the Assembly cannot use the instruments of parliamentary oversight to duplicate or replace the prosecution’s competences, to verify evidence, to determine criminal facts or individual responsibilities.

Thanks to this governing majority, the path has been opened with courage and determination to independent justice, in a country where until very few years ago this independence was unimaginable for centuries.

Nor can these developments with justice be mud thrown against Albania, which on its path of union with Europe is doing much that cannot yet even be imagined in the other countries of the region and which time will appreciate better than anyone.

Only yesterday Ursula von der Leyen confirmed: “When we see cases being investigated, they are proof that the system is working. This is the empowerment of the system”. So let us let the system do its work. No instrument of parliamentary oversight, from a motion with debate to a parliamentary investigative commission, can replace, influence, condition or hinder the full and independent investigation by SPAK prosecutors. I want to repeat here that every personal attack on SPAK prosecutors, who deserve respect for their work, must stop. The ritual of shame on two Mondays a month by a defendant at SPAK’s doors must stop. The political force within which this person militates must hold the first debate within itself on this issue.

Everyone is innocent until the final judgment, but no one is above the law in any case and for any reason. Our stance remains the one we stated on the first day of the Justice Reform:

The innocence or guilt of an official, even if proposed, supported or voted by us, placed under accusation is an individual matter before the prosecution and the court, and this governing majority remains faithful to this stance, not entering into the merits of any justice case and not acting as anyone’s advocate before justice.

Yesterday’s immediate dismissal from duty of the service’s director was precisely the example of this approach on our part. Meanwhile, all the institutions charged by law: the Prime Minister → institutional dependence; the Assembly’s Committee on Internal Affairs and Defence → parliamentary oversight; the President → reporting + competences over direction; the Inspector General → inspection of activity; the SAI/Audit → financial control; the Prosecution/Court → legal/judicial control in the respective fields.

This is a matter that must be left to the prosecution and the court, not to the sporadic reading of investigative materials brought out to muddle public opinion. The process will show whether or not there are things that have harmed anything in relation to national security or in relation to our partners.