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Balluk's immunity/Rama: Case closed, prosecutor and judge cannot do whatever they want
2026-03-15 10:02:41 / POLITIKË
Prime Minister Edi Rama considered the matter of SPAK's request for authorization from the Assembly to arrest MP Belinda Balluku as closed. On March 12, the Assembly rejected this request with 82 votes against and 47 in favor.
Edi Rama's speech
The Albanian Parliament ended a long discussion, debate, controversy, and clash regarding the request to authorize the deprivation of liberty of a deputy. And the issue of deputy Belinda Balluku, in my opinion, in our opinion, is a closed issue.
The Assembly expressed itself after handling with great responsibility and with the greatest care everything that was made available to it and did not authorize the request with the assessment that the request is in the continuation of a trend, which cannot continue indefinitely, where people are treated as if they were tools at the disposal of the fight against corruption, even when it is not about corruption, even when it is not about embezzlement for personal interests, even when it is not about any reason that could hinder the development of investigations and are taken and brought in, practically turning Albania into the black sheep of the Council of Europe, of all the countries of the Council of Europe, not of the European Union, as the country with more pre-trial detainees, i.e. locked up without trial, than prisoners, i.e. tried and convicted.
58% of the population that we have today in the prison system of the Republic of Albania have not been tried, but are in prison and live off Albanian taxes, instead of living off their work outside prison and being pursued while free.
Of course, I am not speaking for everyone, because there are certainly among them those whose freedom should be restricted in advance, since they were caught red-handed, have committed a serious criminal offense, are socially dangerous, etc., but in its entirety, while the Council of Europe has sounded the alarm on this issue, we are not deaf and while we do not have mechanisms to curb a set of actions of this nature, which are truly serious and are justified, as the Council of Europe report says in general terms, in this case we could not join this madness with our own hands.
The MP is equal before the law, this is not in dispute. Like any other citizen, he can and should be investigated if there is reason for investigation, but the freedom of the MP, like that of any other citizen, cannot be limited simply and only by general words or by the theory that the prosecutor and the judge are independent and they do whatever they want.
They cannot do whatever they want when they knock on the door of the Assembly and the Assembly cannot pretend not to see, not to hear, not to think and refuse to perform its role, practically protecting its dignity, the dignity of the parliamentarians of the Republic of Albania who cannot be treated as guilty without being declared as such by the court and cannot be limited in their freedom without having any condition leading to this.
So, in this case, as is universally known, we are dealing with a case where the prosecutor rightfully raised suspicion and initiated an investigation and then filed charges for violating equality in tenders about six years ago, and on the other hand, there is no charge of corruption, no charge of embezzlement, no flagrante delicto, no evidence that points in this direction.
And the Criminal Procedure Code is very clear: Not granting an arrest warrant does not prevent the prosecution from continuing the investigation or requesting other measures. So, the investigation continues and justice is not obstructed. On the other hand, the deputy no longer exercises any executive function. The entire request was there, when she exercised the executive function and despite the fact that she is no longer in office, the prosecution continued to request the same thing, forgetting that in fact nothing new had happened, except for the fact that the deputy was simply a deputy and that she no longer has any capacity to influence anything regarding the investigations. So, I repeat, arrest as the most severe security measure will be the last resort, it cannot be the first resort.
And I want to add here that all those who raised the alarm about integration and membership in the European Union, which was so close to us, keep in mind, are the same ones who until this moment preached day and night that integration and membership were very far away. That integration and membership was “a dream that I sold to Albanians but that I didn’t even believe in myself”, that “we would never join the European Union” and suddenly the lids were lifted on all the pots because the dream was shattered at the last moment. These are at best ridiculous, at worst they are not only ignorant, but they are also very evil. But, I assure you that in no way has our path to membership been blocked and will not be blocked for this reason.
It is true that we have had a very constructive discussion with some partners, who have a different opinion, who have a completely different approach to immunity in their countries, because in their countries no investigation can begin without first obtaining the authorization of the parliament. We do not have immunity of this nature in Albania. We only have guarantees for the protection of the freedom of deputies and that's it. The rest, as Father Gjergj Fishta said, are nonsense.
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