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Pretexts/How the SP is burning through deadlines to save Belinda Balluku from handcuffs
2026-01-28 17:04:52 / POLITIKË
The socialist majority is deliberately leading SPAK's request for the arrest of the accused Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku towards the brink of collapse, taking advantage of the delay in a decision by the Constitutional Court. The scheme of procrastination seems to be leading to the exhaustion of legal deadlines, with the aim of automatically dropping the request.
Hopes are placed on Article 118, point 5 of the Assembly's rules of procedure, which stipulates that if the Assembly does not make a decision within three months of the submission of the prosecution's request for authorization to arrest a deputy, the request is considered rejected. With this scenario, the Socialist Party saves itself the vote against the authorization requested by SPAK, but also saves the defendant Belinda Balluku from arrest. For Balluku, this means a concrete date: March 16.
Since December 16, when SPAK filed the request, the Assembly has not taken any real action to review it. On the contrary, the process has been postponed indefinitely, through an unclear justification that a decision of the Constitutional Court must be awaited, which legally does not prevent the Assembly from exercising its constitutional competence to grant or not the authorization.
The order recently signed by the Speaker of the Assembly, Niko Peleshi, states that the review of SPAK's request "will be linked to the receipt and preliminary assessment of the decision of the Constitutional Court, to guarantee a complete, objective decision-making process in accordance with constitutional principles."
But this formulation has created an institutional impasse, as it seems that the Constitutional Court is waiting for the Assembly and the Assembly is waiting for the Constitutional Court to take the hot potato named Belinda Balluku off their hands. As a result, the legal deadline continues to burn.
The positions reflect a political line publicly announced by Prime Minister Edi Rama on December 21 of last year, after SPAK requested authorization from parliament for the arrest of Belinda Balluku.
Rama's statement, which has de facto become a political order, was that "there is no possibility that the governing and parliamentary majority will consider the prosecutors' urgent request to authorize new extreme measures."
The defense being offered to the defendant Belinda Balluku by the Socialist Party represents a sharp turn from the previous stance towards the new justice system, when Edi Rama swore that the Socialist Party would not turn into a law firm for anyone who had trouble with justice. Along these lines, two years ago, the former chairman of the Socialist parliamentary group, Bledi Çuçi, publicly declared that the SP would vote for any request to lift immunity, regardless of political affiliation.
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Today, this statement contradicts concrete practice, where for the first time in the history of the Assembly, a SPAK request for the arrest of a deputy drags on for weeks without being put on the agenda.
While politics consumes time, SPAK prosecutors have argued that Belinda Balluku's continued tenure poses a direct threat to the investigative process.
Prosecutor Dritan Prençi stated at the Constitutional Court session that Balluku influenced the process of taking evidence after returning to office. "Considering the role and high state function of Ms. Balluku, we have argued the needs for taking evidence, investigations with witnesses and the fact that they have actually interfered in the investigation process and violated the taking of evidence," Prençi said.
He also stressed that the Constitutional Court's decision to suspend the restraining order against Balluk had a concrete negative effect on the investigation. "This decision to suspend the order has definitely had an effect, due to her high state role and function ," he said.
SPAK has gone even further, claiming that Balluku exerted pressure on one of her subordinates at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, Mirzeta Kashnica, a member of the Bid Evaluation Committee for the Llogara tunnel tender.
The investigative file states verbatim that "the use of special methods has resulted in data that the defendant, during the time she was familiar with the accusation and performing her duties, exerted pressure in various forms on the person questioned."
For this very reason, SPAK prosecutors have requested not only the suspension from duty, but also the authorization of the arrest of the defendant Belinda Balluku, arguing that she is destroying evidence, influencing witnesses, and endangering the public interest by continuing to exercise her state functions.
Against this backdrop, the institutional game of delay aims to seize the date of March 16, when SPAK's request falls due to deadlines. And along with SPAK's request, the false facade that Edi Rama worked so hard to build over the years as if he would never oppose the new justice system, because his mission was to bring Albania to the European Union table, also falls. /Lapsi.al
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