The Court of Appeal of the General Jurisdiction in Tirana has rejected the request submitted by Ervin Salianji for the suspension of a previous decision of the Court of the Judicial District of Tirana.

Specifically, the request was about the suspension of decision no. 2900, dated 18.12.2019, which was then upheld by the Appeal with decision no. 30-2024-6822, dated 26.09.2024.

Salianji was sentenced to 1 year in prison for making a false report in the case known as “Babale”.

In the appeal addressed to the Supreme Court, the defense of the former deputy of the Democratic Party asked for the suspension of the sentence until the review by the Supreme Court, arguing that the process was irregular and that the decision taken is questionable.

Salianji’s lawyers claim that the sentence is politically motivated and not based on sufficient evidence, stressing that their client should not serve the sentence until the judicial proceedings in the higher instances are completed.

Court of Appeal decided to uphold the decision of the First Instance against Ervin Salianji and his sentence of 1 year in prison for the file known as “Babalja”. The democratic deputy was convicted in 2019 by the First Degree in connection with an audio interception, where it was claimed that the brother of the then Minister of the Interior, Fatmir Xhafaj, was involved in cannabis trafficking.

At that time, the Court of First Instance decided that the audio-taping was staged and found guilty of the 4 defendants, among them Fredi Alizoti, who staged the voice of Geron Xhafa, Albert Veliun, otherwise known as “Babalja”, journalist Jetmir Olldashi, as well as MP Ervin Salianji.

Based on the Constitution, Salianji’s mandate is immediately terminated, and on the other hand, the decriminalization law removes his right to run in the 2025 and future elections.