DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

The 'McGonigal' case, VOA: Rama did not give an explanation for the engagement of his former adviser and the Albanian-American Neza

2023-03-02 18:55:09Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The 'McGonigal' case, VOA: Rama did not give an explanation for the
Edi Rama today in Parliament

In Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama repeated today that the indictment brought against the former senior FBI official McGonigal does not implicate either him or the Albanian government. Mr. Rama spoke today in the parliament in a session of the parliament which united the three demands of the opposition for interpellation, motion with debate and question and answer with the prime minister. But the latter, however, left the hall at the end of his speech, where he focused only on the moments in which the indictment mentions his name, without giving explanations for the engagement of his former adviser Dorian Ducka and to the Albanian-American Agron Neza, in providing information about the lobbying in the USA of the Democratic Party.

In turn, representatives of the opposition presented their demands regarding the McGonigal case and his relationship with Prime Minister Edi Rama. For the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party, Enkelejd Alibeaj, who requested an interview, "the people involved had three goals. Prime Minister Edi Rama intended to initiate a criminal case against the American lobbyist engaged by the DP, which would then serve to initiate a criminal investigation by the Albanian authorities. For Agron Neza and Dorian Ducka, the goal was simple: the benefit of concessionary licenses in the oil sector. For agent McGonigal, the benefit of at least 225 thousand dollars and other benefits from businesses in Albania. And all these goals, for each one, were realized through illegal means". Mr. Alibeaj asked 30 questions for the prime minister

After him, deputy Luciano Boci, among the signatories of the debated motion, accused the prime minister of having to answer "for the corruption of the former FBI official", in order to, according to him, "hit and eliminate the opposition and the political system in Albania". .

Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha also had questions for Mr. Rama: "There are 13, but there should be 130, to which the parliamentary investigative commission must answer. Without answering these questions, Albania will have chaos and only chaos"

But in fact, Mr. Rama did not answer the opposition's questions, choosing to analyze all the moments where his name is mentioned in the indictment. "In these 14 such famous times of repeating my name day and night for two months, the indictment says nothing, zero, neither about me, nor about the Albanian government or anyone else that the person in question has met, nor about the Albanian state ", he said.

One of the moments of the indictment against Mr. McGonigal, which has raised more discussions, is the one related to the information he received in Albania about the lobbying of the Democratic Party in the USA, which led, at his instigation, to the opening of an investigation by the FBI, to lobbyist Nick Muzin's company.

The first moment is on November 25, 2017, when the former FBI official informs the US Department of Justice about this case. Prime Minister Rama read this paragraph, but skipped the last sentence, where it is stated that "a day ago he (McGonigal) had received information about the American lobbyist from person B", identified as Dorian Ducka, whom the prime minister has admitted to having worked as his external consultant without pay.

At that time, exactly two days ago, on November 22, BIRN had made public the fact that Muzin had declared that he had received 500 thousand dollars from the Democratic Party.

The next moment is that of January 2018, when the former FBI official receives information again, this time from the Albanian-American Agron Neza, whom Prime Minister Rama stated earlier that he knew through Mr. McGonigal, who introduced as his friend.

According to the indictment, Neza received the information from the office of the prime minister of Albania. Mr. Rama did not deny such a fact, but clarified that "the time to which this moment refers, coincides with the days after the scandal had appeared in the media here and I or my office, listen carefully to this because it is very important, they should hear it all the Albanians and the democrats, we didn't have anything else about this, except for the information released in the media that if we had it, how would we keep it hidden?"

The prime minister repeated that "if I had had any information, more than what appeared in the media, about the terrible fact that the Russians were financing the largest opposition in this country to overthrow the government, I would have passed it on to everyone I could, without any discussion, from the partner organizations sensitive to these issues and the FBI definitely, the first one at all".

But in fact, at that time, there was no talk of Russian funding. The article published by BIRN did not deal at all with this issue, which came to light later, in March, after doubts raised by an article published by the American magazine "Mother Jones".

On the other hand, Prime Minister Edi Rama did not explain why Neza and Ducka were directly involved in this matter, the first becoming the FBI's confidential source on this matter, and the second, Mr. Rama's advisor, sponsoring the trips of witnesses from Europe about their meetings with the FBI.

Before leaving, Prime Minister Rama emphasized that the 500,000 dollars paid by DP were not invented by him, stating that a few months ago this was also confirmed by the CIA report on Russian funding in Europe.

The opposition considered unacceptable the departure of the prime minister from the hall while, according to them, he was obliged to answer the questions. Although Mr. Rama did not return, as he had made it clear that he will no longer respond to the demands of the opposition, the session continued for hours with discussions in an almost empty hall./ VOA


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×