Former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri will not be a member of the Socialist Party parliamentary group up to the end of the investigations against him, Albanian PM Edi Rama announced after a meeting of the Socialist parliamentary group.

“Tahiri will be a free man and a free deputy, out of the forum of the Socialist Party and the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party”, Rama said.

“We reject unanimously the request for his arrest, we admit to give the authorization to ban him from going abroad, obligation of presentation, wealth guarantee, personal and residence control for Tahiri. In no other case for any other deputy would I have accepted such extreme requirements. This is another Albanian wonder, because the question whether Tahiri is innocent must not remain unanswered”.

“Tahiri should be investigated with all the possibilities the Code foresees, but we will not meddle politically as Tahiri’s defenders. We’ll be here, if the prosecution brings evidence and not newspapers and comes here with facts, we will raise the hand for his arrest”, Rama said.