US: Albania Politicians Should Forfeit Immunity

07 May 2008 Tirana _ The U.S. ambassador in Tirana has urged Albanian politicians to support a bill that would forfeit the immunity deputies enjoy by law.

U.S. Ambassador to Albania John L. Withers

Embassy Highlights
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Remarks By U.S. Ambassador John L. Withers II at the Launch of the 2008 Corruption Perception and Experience Survey Conducted by IDRA and Funded by USAID (May 7, 2008)
Rector Kule, Dean Stringa, Distinguished guests,
I have spoken here in Albania on a number of issues. Most of them have been topics that make me very happy. Albania’s NATO invitation, the independence of Kosovo, even a little bit on Albanian culture and history. Today’s subject unfortunately is not one of those happy subjects; today’s subject is corruption.
Today we are releasing the findings of a USAID-funded survey, conducted by Director Pasha’s institution, on corruption in Albania. The survey tracks both the perception and experience of corruption by ordinary citizens. The news unfortunately is not good. According to the survey, 92% of Albanians says corruption is widespread among public officials and that is a decline of 8 points form a year ago. The report shows no progress in bribery indicators. Nearly 70% of people surveyed report paying a bribe for medical treatment. Nearly 60% have little or no trust in the judicial system. By a 3 to 1 margin, Albanians do not think the judges are impartial when conducting trials.

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http://tirana.usembassy.gov/index.html

US: Albania Politicians Should Forfeit Immunity

07 May 2008 Tirana _ The U.S. ambassador in Tirana has urged Albanian politicians to support a bill that would forfeit the immunity deputies enjoy by law.

U.S. Ambassador to Albania John L. Withers

“The political elite of this country must take charge in fighting corruption in a meaningful way not just through speeches and words,” said ambassador John L. Withers.

“One important straightforward step that can be done is to change the immunity law, which protects senior officials in courts, in Parliament and in other offices from prosecution,” Withers added.

“They should be as liable to prosecution as any Albanian citizen,” he said.

Withers asked the political leadership to empower the institutions that seek justice; empower the prosecutors who go after the criminals; and, should make clear that whoever the suspect is, regardless of wealth, regardless of family ties, regardless of political connections, is subject to prosecution.

At the end of last month, Albania’s Prosecutor General asked Parliament to lift the immunity of former Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu amid a probe into March’s deadly army depot blasts outside Tirana. Read more: http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/9711

Dieser Eintrag wurde am 9.5.2008 um 15:43 verfasst und befindet sich in Balkan (Englisch). Sie können alle Antworten zu diesem Eintrag über den Feed RSS 2.0 mitverfolgen. Hinterlassen Sie eine Antwort oder einen Trackback-Link zu Ihrer eigenen Homepage.

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