Albanian opposition burns chairs in protest outside parliament

TIRANA: Albanian right-wing opposition lawmakers on Monday threw their chairs out of parliament and set them on fire to protest against a prison sentence handed to one of their peers.

Ervin Salianji, an official of the main opposition Democratic Party, was found guilty last week of giving false testimony in a drug trafficking case that targeted the brother of a lawmaker of the ruling Socialist Party.

The judges suspected some opposition members of having produced false recordings. The opposition described Salianji´s arrest and conviction as a “blind act of revenge and political terror against the Democratic Party” and accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of being behind it.

“We will continue our battle against Rama, who is solely responsible for this situation,” the head of the Democratic Party´s parliamentary group, Gazmend Bardhi, told reporters. Rama in a statement hailed the court´s ruling in the case which he said had “shocked” the public.

The opposition lawmakers called on Albanians to rally on October 7 in the capital Tirana to protest against Rama. Demonstrators said they would block roads throughout the country. “The battle of October 7 will be the battle of our lives”, the Democratic Party leader and former prime minister Sali Berisha said on Sunday.

Berisha has been under house arrest since December last year on charges of “passive corruption”. He has rejected the accusations against him as politically motivated and accused Rama of being behind them as the country is to hold parliamentary elections next year.