Former Chief of Police, Lefter Maliqi was invited on tonight’s panel show ‘Now’ hosted by Erla Mehilli, to talk about the most recent news from the ranks of the Albanian State Police – Ardi Veliu’s resignation from his duties as chief of police.
According to Maliqi, Ardi Veliu has been ‘secretly’ fired from his official duties, therefore he doesn’t see this as a resignation.
As a general rule, said Maliqi, a letter of resignation is initially referred to a minister of interior, who is then the one that forwards it to the prime minister, therefore this event doesn’t make any sense on the aspect of protocols and formalities, either.
However, what’s most important according to Maliqi, is that Veliu was ‘used by Rama and then thrown away”, something that according to Maliqi is a method that is very dear to Rama and used on multiple occasions in the past, on ministers and members of parliament.
“Ardi Veliu is just the next ‘squeezed lemon’ in line. Rama has shown these same tactics with former ministers and MPs. He used him against the opposition as teargas and as a driver for Klement Balili. He was also used during the elections,” – said Maliqi on ‘Now’.
‘They know too much’
Maliqi also noted that both the former chief of police, Ardi Veliu and former interior minister, Saimir Tahiri “know too much”, which is why they were penalized by being dismissed from all political life.
“He knows too much. He also knows a lot about the prime minister’s family and drug trafficking, and the connections, money laundering etc. the director-general knows about the entire criminal landscape in the country and is also linked to oligarchs. He knows too much, just like Saimir Tahiri did,” – argued Maliqi.
‘No high-ranking officer could have written that’
Former director of Police, Arben Hajarmataj also claimed that Ardi Veliu has been terminated by PM Rama instead of voluntarily stepping down.
According to Hajdarmataj, Veliu has been a “good solider” to both Rama and the socialist party.
After analyzing his letter of resignation, Hajdarmataj noted that it has many flaws and that it isn’t “at all suited to a high-ranking official and director of his stature”.
‘It will be difficult to change the face of our police force, with this political model’
According to security expert, Ergys Muzhaqi, the lack of political will has been preventing professionals within the State Police from doing their work as they should.
He also emphasized that as long as this same political model continues to prevail, it will be very difficult to start seeing a different spirit from among the ranks of our State Police, regardless of who is appointed director.
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