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VOA: Rama avoids explaining why the meetings with the former FBI official took place in the presence of private persons

2023-02-02 19:40:39Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
VOA: Rama avoids explaining why the meetings with the former FBI official took
View from today's parliamentary session

In Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama today avoided an interpellation called by opposition MPs, who accuse him of being involved in an affair with former FBI official Charles McGonigal, accused, among other things, of not reporting contacts and connections with Albanian officials or other countries and that he received money from a former employee of the Albanian intelligence services. Mr. Rama had delegated the representation to the Minister for Relations with the Parliament, Elisa Spiropali, provoking strong objections from the opposition, which considered the Prime Minister's action unacceptable.

For almost 10 days, since the indictment was published against the former senior FBI official Charles McGonigal, and among other things, and his connections with Albania, the opposition has turned this issue into its own political battle horse against the prime minister.

According to the indictment, the former FBI official is found to have received in 2017 an amount of 225 thousand dollars from the Albanian-American Agron Neza. In the autumn of that year, he made several visits to Albania, during which he held meetings with Prime Minister Rama. Together they met later in New York. The meetings between them have always been held in the presence of Neza and Dorian Dučka, for whom Mr. Rama has admitted that he worked with him for some time, without payment. As for Neza, he stated that he got to know her during meetings with the former FBI official.

The Prime Minister has not given any explanation as to why the meetings with the former FBI official were held in the presence of private persons, nor has he explained why first Ducka and then Neza were committed to providing information to the former FBI official - for a lobbying issue in the United States, in favor of an Albanian party, especially since in at least one case, according to the indictment, Neza "received the information from the office of the Prime Minister of Albania".

Even today, no reason was given as to why in the interpellation that the opposition had requested with him, regarding the connections with the former FBI official, he chose not to be in the room, delegating this to the Minister for Relations with the Parliament, Elisa Spiropali.

An action that caused harsh reactions from the opposition, according to which the rules of the parliament do not provide for such a thing, especially since it was a matter directly related to the prime minister and not to others. "I am not interpellating about an issue or activity of the Council of Ministers, but about a private activity of the prime minister, carried out privately, in restaurants, bars and restaurant parking lots. The problem is, why for a criminal activity carried out personally by Edi Rama, he tries to abuse a lady, in this particular case she is a minister, and hides behind her dress", said the democratic deputy Gazmend Bardhi.

But according to Mrs. Spiropali, the opposition has raised "a whole series of lies, deceptions and fabrications. You cannot come here and throw criminal charges, charges that do not exist in any file, neither for the prime minister of the country, nor for any other citizen of the Republic of Albania. You have received and will receive the answer. My question is do you want the answer or not? Then accept that you have the accusations for political consumption and you have no seriousness about dealing with this issue".

For former FBI official McGonigal, there are two separate cases. In the case where Albania is mentioned, he is accused of not having reported contacts and connections with Albanian officials or of other countries and of having received money from the former employee of the Albanian intelligence services Neza.

But the opposition claims that the money received by Neza is, according to it, offered by the prime minister in order to hit the opposition, in the case of her lobbying through Nick Muzin's American company, which in November 2017 declared that it had received 500,000 dollars to work in favor of the Democratic Party.

While the tension in the hall was high in the parliament, Prime Minister Edi Rama shared a post on Twitter, stating that "extreme defamation is aimed at manipulating the opinion with a case investigated by the American judiciary that has gone to court and has not no connection with us here". The prime minister also rejected the opposition's claims that he was the one who bribed the former FBI official, referring to "American justice" which, as he underlined, "has no such accusation or claim".

This issue seems to continue to be a hot topic. A group of opposition deputies requested a motion with a debate with the prime minister, while today they also signed the request for the establishment of a special investigative commission./ VOA


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