Democratic Party Chairman Sali Berisha the vote of the Albanian Parliament for the opening of the files of Sigurimi, the former secret police under the communist dictatorship. Berisha said Premier Edi Rama is not interested in lustration and all he wants is witch hunting against former President Ilir Meta.

“In his address last night, Edi Rama brought out the essence of the matter. There is no lustration and there will be no lustration. He used an amendment as an alibi, but essentially only to disallow lustration”. Berisha told media reporters in his weekly press conference today.

“Three practices exist, one is opening the files and everyone can go and get acquainted to their own file. This is the German practice. It already exists today in Albania, with a few modifications”.

“The first one is not about de-communistization. The second practice has been applied in most former communist countries and it is called the lustration practice. This practice, which Edi Rama objects categorically, prohibits the entire nomenclature, the entire secret police, with officers and collaborators of all levels, in addition to the communist nomenclature, from running for public offices and leadership positions. This is the practice of lustration, which was first implemented in former communist countries by Vaclav Havel, a respected man. Edi Rama said it was anti-European. Havel was and remains a promoter of the Europeanism of former communist countries”.

“This practice was adopted, after Czechoslovakia, from Albania, in 1996. In this practice, besides the lustrations, there’s a law article that entitles the citizens to get acquainted to their file and their persecutors”.

“I have here the Law of 2008. Look at Article 26, the right to be acquainted with the personal file. Every Albanian citizen has the right to be familiar with their personal data contained in the files of the Sigurimi, according to the law. So, no restrictions. To have access in the data, a citizen submits a request to the state authority. The authority within 30 days is obliged to return a negative answer if there is no data. In any case, the citizens have access only to their personal data. This Article gives the opportunity to every Albanian to receive their files and have access to them”.

“There is another law passed by the Democratic Party government – for the first time in Albania – the law on the punishment of crimes of communism and communist genocide. According to that law, every person that finds their persecutor has the right to appear in the prosecutor's office and demand their punishment. Precisely this law was sent by Edi Rama to the Constitutional Court and was overturned from five judges that were in a complete conflict of interest...”

“This is a witch-hunting law against Ilir Meta. It is an amendment against Meta. We thought he would return the lustration law, because every persecuted person and society demands that those who have committed crimes should not be in office. That is the legitimate expectation. It is also precisely what Edi Rama does not accept. And he vowed that this will never happen. So we submitted this law with some changes. We are never for witch hunting, making a law for just one person.”

“We are never for the destruction of juridical certainty, the decisions of the two previous commissions cannot be annulled by anyone other than the court. They are objected in a court of law. If we continue with the practice of gangsters like these, I guarantee you that tomorrow they can pass another law on property, on private assets, on private activities. There is no country in the world that does something like this, except for junta-led ones”, said Berisha.