In defense of SPAK/ For a legal and not a political standard!

2023-10-26 17:21:00, Opinione Blendi Kajsiu

In defense of SPAK/ For a legal and not a political standard!

Apricot Blend

The suspension of Sali Berisha by SPAK has opened a broad debate on the independence of this institution. The criticism that is being made to him by a good part of the public opinion, without counting the Berishists, is that he is using a double standard. SPAK is accused of attacking Berisha's abuses with the Partizan sports club, but not those of Rama with the incinerator affair. It is an understandable criticism and should be taken seriously, without reducing it to propaganda.

The problem with this criticism is that it confuses the political and the legal standard. The idea that SPAK should simultaneously arrest both Rama and Berisha can be argued politically but not legally. The issue of incinerators and the privatization of the Partizan sports club are not equivalent from a legal point of view, especially in terms of the direct benefit of the decision-makers Rama and Berisha.

In the case of incinerators, we have plenty of evidence of abusive and irregular decision-making. But there is still no evidence that Edi Rama or his family have benefited from the corrupt affair of the incinerator. In the case of the privatization of the Partizan sports club, there is plenty of evidence that the prime minister's family members (that is, the public decision-maker) benefited directly from this decision-making.

Of course, this does not mean that we are automatically dealing with corruption on the part of former Prime Minister Berisha. Article 260 of our criminal code defines passive corruption as "Soliciting or receiving, directly or indirectly, any type of improper benefit... for oneself or for other persons... from the person exercising public functions". It must be proven in court that these benefits were irregular or that Prime Minister Berisha's decision was made in violation of the law (or irregularly) in order for his relatives to benefit directly from it.

So it's not just about irregular decisions or misuse of duties. It is about irregular decisions that produce profit for the public official who takes these decisions. The officials detained in the incinerator affair were arrested (although not all) not simply for abuse of office, but because they benefited from their irregular decision-making.

In the case of Edi Rama, we still do not have any evidence that he or his relatives benefited directly from the incinerator affair. Of course, this evidence can be revealed tomorrow. We can learn that Edi Rama is behind Klodian Zoto, that the owners of the incinerators have donated apartments to Edi Rama's children, daughters-in-law, or his wife. In this case, if SPAK will not act, then we are dealing with a double legal standard.

This has nothing to do with the political standard. Despite the legal logic, Rama has a clear political responsibility for the incinerator affair. His excuses that everything happened in front of the prime minister are ridiculous from a political point of view. For this reason, most Albanians are dissatisfied with his government.

Politically, the privatization of the Partizan sports club and the affair of the incinerators can be seen as two equivalent cases of abuse or misuse of power. It can even be argued that the affair of the incinerators has done more harm to the Albanian public interest than the privatization of the sports club Partizan. This is political logic.

The problem is that if we follow the political standard that equates Berisha and Rama, we have to wait for Prime Minister Rama to turn 80 years old to be arrested. We have to wait for him to appear in the opposition. To stay there for 10 years until she is declared non-grata and then SPAK arrests her, after finding evidence that the incinerators were built by his son or daughter-in-law.

In this case, the political standard is far below the legal standard offered by SPAK. And this is for the simple fact that every political standard established by Berisha in these thirty years of democracy is like that. Therefore, it is paradoxical to use Berisha's misgovernance as a yardstick for Rama's misgovernance. It is precisely this logic that keeps Rama in power.

The Rama government can much more easily pass the political standards that Berisha has set than the legal standards that SPAK is setting, which have brought down all the heavyweights of the socialist government. That's why it's a big surprise that today we use the rotten standards of Albanian politics to denounce the legal standards that SPAK is setting.