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Article on Veliaj's dismissal/The lawyer lies before the Constitutional Court

2025-10-31 12:31:00, Aktualitet CNA

Article on Veliaj's dismissal/The lawyer lies before the Constitutional

Erion Veliaj's lawyers have lied before the Constitutional Court panel, claiming that Article 115 of the Constitution stipulates that the government can only make such a decision for serious violations of the Constitution or laws.

Regarding this, the lawyers have also mentioned the two letters sent by Endrit Shabani and Ilir Alimehmeti.

"Regarding the allegations of violation of the right to a fair legal process, only 15 days after Veliaj's arrest, the Municipal Council advisor, Endri Shabani, submitted a request to the council to initiate procedures for his dismissal, stating that the arrest had created a vacuum in the municipality. A reason that is not prescribed in either the Constitution or the law on local government. So Shabani proposed dismissal based on an extra-legal reason. This request was not addressed. On 09.05. 2025, the Democratic advisor Ilir Alimehmeti filed a request for the dismissal of Veliaj due to his 3-month absence. No decision was made on this request either. On 18.9.2025, the SP advisors in Tirana requested the proposal for the dismissal of Veliaj due to his absence from duty for more than three months and, as stated in the request, in accordance with the political orientations of the party he represents. The council meeting was convened only in accordance with the request of the SP group, so this request was on the agenda, but in this relation it was proposed by the majority and voted in favor of the request of the DP and Shabani councilors. After that, the three above-mentioned requests were approved, so the reason for the proposal of dismissal was also the extra-legal reason from Shabani. In this situation, the principle of the rule of law was directly violated because the initiative for dismissal itself was launched on an extra-legal basis. The law clearly provides for cases of termination of the mandate but does not recognize the vacancy as a reason for dismissal. This means that the council did not act on legal grounds but on motives from political discourse, transforming an administrative process into a politically motivated action", he said.

But in both letters, both Endrit Shabani's and Ilir Alimehmet's, article 61 and article 62 point c are cited.

Article on Veliaj's dismissal/The lawyer lies before the Constitutional

Article 61 provides that the mandate of the mayor may end early when conditions of inability to perform the duty arise and Article 62 point c, which states that “Based on Law No. 139/2015 on Local Self-Government, as amended, Article 62 point c, which states that the Mayor is dismissed by decision of the Council of Ministers in cases where point c is proposed for dismissal by the relevant municipal council for failure to appear at work for an uninterrupted period of 3 months”.

The Municipal Council referred precisely to this article for Veliaj's dismissal and not to article 115 to which Erion Veliaj's lawyer refers.

So based on these facts, Veliaj's lawyers have lied to the members of the Constitutional Court./ CNA