Gazment Bardhi says that Belinda Balluku was summoned to SPAK on Monday for one of the corruption cases being investigated by prosecutor Dritan Premçi .
According to Bardhi, this summons from the prosecutor will be rejected, as the Deputy Prime Minister has planned a trip abroad, while Edi Rama has been pressuring the prosecutor for days to cancel the summons.
Bardhi has not confirmed the information he has, but he has implied it with a series of questions he has addressed to Altin Dumani, the outgoing head of SPAK.
"Is it true that for this reason the special prosecutor Mr. Dritan Premçi has had direct intervention from Prime Minister Edi Rama to cancel Belinda Balluku's summons, informing the prosecutor that she will not appear at SPAK next week?" is one of the questions of Gazment Bardhi, who asks the US embassy and the EU delegation to closely monitor the threats against prosecutors.
Gazment Bardhi's full message:
Belinda Balluku is the most corrupt official of the Albanian state in these 35 years. In every affair, in every sector, there are traces of her corruption, from energy to infrastructure; from the Llogara Tunnel to the Vlora Airport .
Her files in SPAK are dozens and it seems that one of them has already been released. This is why for some time now, well-informed sources have been indicating that the special prosecutor Mr. Dritan Premçi is under pressure from within SPAK, from the highest levels of power, from certain media segments or from exponents of organized crime.
Following these developments closely, with great concern, also given the fact that I will not be present at Monday's session in the Assembly, today I have several questions for SPAK:
1- Is it true that Special Prosecutor Mr. Dritan Prençi has summoned Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku next week, with the aim of communicating her "defendant" status?
2- Is it true that for this reason, the special prosecutor Mr. Dritan Premçi had direct intervention from Prime Minister Edi Rama to cancel Belinda Balluku's summons, informing the prosecutor that she will not appear before SPAK next week?
3- Did Belinda Balluku organize an international activity on the same day and time that she was supposed to appear at SPAK, in order to justify the refusal and to gain time to increase pressure on the prosecutor?
4- Direct question for the Director of SPAK, Mr. Altin Dumani: Are you aware of the possible pressure on the special prosecutor, Mr. Dritan Premçi, and are you fulfilling your role to support the prosecutor?
5- Which authority within SPAK is trying to do media makeup in defense of Belinda Balluku and for what reason?
In conclusion, being confident that our international partners, especially the US and the EU, have an increased interest in protecting the integrity of SPAK, I publicly invite them to closely monitor this issue, the criminal interventions to tie the hands of the prosecution and to confirm their full support for Special Prosecutor Dritan Premçi and any prosecutor who is not subject to political or criminal pressure on the cases they are investigating.