Prime Minister Edi Rama says that the SPAK prosecutor intimidated people during the investigations into Mayor Erion Veliaj.
In a statement to the media during a ceremony, Rama compared the intimidation that the SPAK prosecutor has inflicted, according to him, with the intimidation that Rama himself was subjected to after the fall of communism.
Rama told how he was escorted by the police to the region, where he was questioned by a person who sought to intimidate him by making him feel guilty.
Excerpt from Rama's speech:
Today we find that we are in a new challenge. The achieved independence must be guaranteed by professionalism, democratic standards, the presumption of innocence is not a line written to wash one's mouth in a 400-page novel, which also talks about people who have not shown remorse. What presumption of innocence are you talking about when you write that "the person has not shown remorse".
This happened, at another time, when investigations were carried out with directives from the State Security, for criminals or people who had to be brought out as criminals. We are in a very delicate situation, not for us in the political aspect, not in our relationship with justice. It is not up to us to say whether Erion is guilty or innocent.
In the process so far, I have witnessed the intimidation of people. People have been intimidated, which has made me think of the time when I was taken by the police, taken to a department or region, and there I was told about the shame I should feel, that I was betraying my father. A man in that investigation was told that his father, who is a state employee, was the right thing to do, and that he should honor his father. Where are we here? This has nothing to do with Erion's guilt or innocence.