Albanian opposition MPs claim police threatened them with weapons

After opposition MPs continued their protest in parliament on Thursday and clashed with police and the parliamentary watchdog, they claimed “armed people threatened MPs with weapons”.

Fjori Sinoruka, October 17, 2024

Albanian opposition MPs protested in front of parliament on Thursday. Photo: Isa Myzyraj

In physical clashes between opposition lawmakers, police and parliamentary guards on Thursday, members of the opposition center-right Albanian Democratic Party, DP, claimed a police officer threatened a lawmaker with a gun, which police denied, saying they were unarmed.

“Due to the assembly law… no police officers were equipped with firearms at the meeting, only riot gear and rubber truncheons,” the police said.

The opposition protest began after a court in Tirana sentenced one of the opposition MPs, Ervin Salianji, to one year in prison. It continued on Thursday. Opposition MPs staged a burning protest in parliament last week Chairs outside the building. They staged another protest October 7th.

Clashes broke out between opposition MPs and police and parliamentary guards after guards refused entry to parliament to some opposition MPs because they had been expelled for several weeks following the previous protest in parliament.

The DP said she had filed a criminal complaint over the alleged gun threat.

“The DP parliamentary group filed a criminal complaint with the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) against the Speaker of the Parliament, the Minister of the Interior, the Director General of Police and the Director of the Police of Tirana after it was not possible to identify “Police… Armed people invaded “Entered the meeting and threatened the MPs with weapons,” the DP press release said.

Journalists were not allowed to enter the building during the clashes between opposition MPs and parliamentary guards.

“Both in this meeting and in other meetings held in another part of the court [at parliament] … they didn’t allow us to go and film the MPs entering and didn’t even allow us to go where there was a clash with the MPs,” Esiona Konomi, a Tirana-based journalist, told BIRN.

She added that in such situations where clashes occur, it is important to allow the media to film freely.

It is not the first time that the opposition has protested in parliament. After calling for eight parliamentary commissions of inquiry last year, which were dismissed by the ruling Socialists, the opposition began protests in October-October March.

Opposition MPs set off flares in Parliament and attempted to physically prevent Parliament from working. The Socialists, meanwhile, began holding online meetings to avoid physical clashes and ordered guards to keep protesting opposition lawmakers away from plenary sessions.