Analyst Baton Haxhiu stated that the damage that Erjon Veliaj has caused to Edi Rama did not come from the opposition either. Haxhiu, during the debate with analysts Bushati and Shkullaku, said that the fact that Erjon Veliaj knew that he was being investigated and did not hide the money found in his wife’s company shows that he sought to challenge justice and Rama himself. However, Haxhiu tried to exclude Veliaj from the charges for the incinerator and Rama with him, emphasizing that the charges now brought by SPAK against Veliaj are extremely serious. Haxhiu made these statements on the show Çim Peka Live on Syri TV.
We need to clarify one thing, Bushati and Shkullaku do not trust SPAK. They consider it a rigged justice…
Shkullaku intervenes: Why do we consider this, you know? You read it differently, I read it differently….
Haxhiu: The problem is whether we believe the prosecution or not. If we believe the prosecution, there is nothing more serious for a leader and a public figure than what the prosecution has sent to the court. Prison is something else.
Shkullaku: So far there is no indictment Baton..
Haxhiu: They haven’t decided yet, because the indictment says, corruption, abuse of office, transaction, family bribery, 100 black things. When a prosecution says these things and is making a spectacle called filing an indictment. There is nothing else but the indictment (addressing Shkullaku) you want the indictment a little faster, because you have a civic stance but the rest is political because you want this individual’s strength in the elections to fall…
Shkullaku: So I’m interested in the opposition winning. Rama can win, whoever he wants…. what does Veliaj have to do with it!
Haxhiu: We are dealing with a man who in the institution he leads, corruption is serious. Now we are talking about the time of the indictment…
Shkullaku: No, we are talking about the quality of the indictment…, what are you accusing him of?
Haxhiu: Well, we don’t know what corruption he is accused of…
Shkullaku: So tell me you don’t know…
Bushati: Oh Baton, this is like accusing a murderer of insult…. that’s it.
Haxhiu: If we are talking about Arbër Veliaj, if we are talking about the mother, the wife, the mother-in-law, we are dealing with a mosaic of accusations that have not yet been transformed into an indictment. If the whole family is involved in all this, no more can be said than that!
Peka: What does Veliaj’s wife, mother, wife, brother have to do with the Tirana Incinerator? It’s not like they interfered with this at the incinerator. That’s what Veliaj did to Rama, can you explain this to me?
Haxhiu: I’m going to talk about the incinerator, we have to start from the beginning. The incinerator began in 2018 when the coalition of the SP with the LSi collapsed. It started there, then it ended with the Tirana incinerator. The greatest damage that was done to the SP and Edi Rama did not come from Sali Berisha, nor from Ilir Meta, than it did from Erjon Veliaj. Because he is within the family and his guilt is more serious. It cannot be washed away…
Shkullaku: So you are saying that the accusation of SPAK is serious and with this accusation, SPAK is acting outside the control of the government?
Haxhiu: I am speaking within the law. If for a long time we have concluded that we Veliaj is the person pretending to take over Edi Rama’s power, I don’t know what a prime minister could do with his power to stop this process. We can say that he no longer needs it and has released it himself… These are political interpretations and I am not interested. The fact that the prosecution issues these serious findings, and the government does not intervene means that the government has a hygienic distance from justice. What bothers me most about a man who has been mayor of Tirana for three terms is his arrogance. Arrogance and the ease of acting with the justice institutions, knowing that he will be checked, there are 215 thousand dollars in money…
Peka: Why should he have hidden it?
Haxhiu: Of course he should have hidden it, because that is a sign of arrogance. Because you, being under investigation, finding the money and being the mayor, think that you will stay within the power of your arrogance is a serious matter for a person. I don’t know what you want, if you want a public hanging, that’s your problem, I’m talking about the role of justice. Shkullak and Bushat, we need to distinguish what a manager is. The mayor is nothing more than a manager. He thought he was the prime minister, the prime minister and the government make collegial decisions and have punishments mainly by vote. The mayor has no immunity from these things…
