Vokshi seeks the Venice Commission’s opinion on the changes to the Criminal Procedure Code

Democratic MP Albana Vokshi asks the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to refer the changes proposed by the Albanian government to the Criminal Procedure Code to the Venice Commission for an opinion, before they are approved by the force of the majority’s voting cards in parliament.

In her speech to the Assembly, the Democratic Party representative raised the concern that, through the changes, Prime Minister Rama is rewriting the rules to protect himself and his collaborators from investigation and accountability, openly undermining the foundations of the justice system and, more concretely, of the judiciary.

Precisely at the moment when investigations reach the Prime Minister’s close circle, with cases that include former deputy prime minister Balluku, AKSHI, the former head of the intelligence service Hyseni and other senior officials — the Prime Minister presents worrying changes to the Criminal Procedure Code: he first proposed amendments to Article 242, to create “super-immunity” for himself and other senior officials close to him, and now, by proposing changes to 106 articles of the Criminal Procedure Code, he makes this draft risk the foundations of the justice reform by protecting senior officials from justice.

Vokshi warned that the changes are a strictly political mechanism to protect the Prime Minister himself and senior officials from current investigations, as well as from future ones.

According to her, in a country where the word scandal has lost its weight because scandals from the government are a daily occurrence, a proposal arrives whereby criminal offences that carry a sentence of up to five years are excluded from arrest measures.

“So, if you steal, abuse public procurement, abuse your duty or post, or get involved in electoral violations or crimes, you do not serve a single day in prison,” Vokshi stressed.