This Press Review includes news and reports from the following
newspapers: "Gazeta Shqiptare", "Shekulli", "Tema", "Korrieri", "Albania', "Koha Jone, "RD', "ZP", "Panorama", "Shqip", "Metropol", "Standard", "Tirana Observer", "Republika", "Telegraf", "Albania Daily News"


ELECTORAL ISSUES/ID CARDS

      Problems, ID card application deadline pushed back

The Government postponed the deadline to apply for ID cards until 18 June 2009. The original deadline expired yesterday, however, in view of the fact that considerable numbers of persons without passports had still not applied, and could subsequently find themselves disenfranchised, this deadline was pushed back by three days. In making this decision, Minister of the Interior, Bujar Nishani, said that so far more than 1,360,000 citizens had applied for ID cards and 950,000 had collected their cards. He said that up to 40,000 cards are collected per day and that distribution will continue until Election Day.

      Bregu: Rama is making living people dead

The Democratic Party (DP) election campaign Spokesperson Majlinda Bregu accused yesterday the Socialist Party (SP) Chair Edi Rama for considering citizen Shyqe Hasibra dead. According to Bregu, Hasibra is alive, 58 years old and lives in Shkallnur in Durrës. According to her, Rama was playing with the lives of people for his own political interests. The DP reaction came after the SP found the name of Hasibra in the voters list and claimed she was 159 years old.

CEC turns down requests for compensatory TV time
 
The Central Election Commission (CEC) turned down yesterday the requests of four parties – the Democratic Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Movement for Integration and the Republican Party – for compensatory time in the TV stations that have been biased in broadcasting electoral campaign activities. The SP asked for 263 compensatory minutes, the DP for 169 and the SMI for 193 minutes. The decision to turn down the requests was taken after five hours of debates. The Media Monitoring Board presented the CEC with two reports on electoral campaign coverage, because they could not agree whether inaugurations made by the Prime Minister should be calculated in the Government time portion or in the DP one.

Author of the murder confesses the crime in court

The Prosecutor of the case against Skënder Balla, the person who murdered Artan Zeka a few days ago in Durrës, described him as a dangerous person, adding that he needed to be imprisoned. Balla confessed to the crime yesterday in court but claimed that he intended to damage the victim’s car only. Only two family members of the suspect and nobody from the family of the victim were present in court. A large enough police presence ensured that there was no further violence inside the court.


RULE OF LAW

High Court sends the Gërdec case to Tirana District Court

The High Court, following the Penal College decision, sent three civil lawsuits against the 29 persons accused of criminal involvement in the Gerdec tragedy to the Tirana District Court, with the exception of the file against former Minister of Defence Fatmir Mediu. The three civil lawsuits include two lawsuits from family members of persons affected by the tragedy and another from the Council of Ministers, that is represented by the State Advocate, wants Mihal Delijorgji and his company to pay the damages caused by the tragedy. However, the families affected by the tragedy addressed the Constitutional Court to abrogate the Penal College decision as they claim it is unconstitutional. They asked the Constitutional Court to abrogate the decision and send the case to the High Court again with another Penal College. The trial against former Minister Mediu was postponed yesterday by the Penal College until 6 July 2009, one week after parliamentary elections.
The newspaper writes that should Mediu be re-elected again he will be granted the immunity again and the High Court will have to suspend the process again until the new Assembly votes to lift his immunity. With regards to the judges elected yesterday through lots, judge Kreshnik Omari (who was elected Chair of the court against the 29 accused) is expected to resign today, given that his wife is the defence lawyer for one of the accused. In this case, lots must again be drawn for all three judges of the court.

Nishani: Investigations on several versions

Minister of Interior Nishani rejected the statement made by the General Director of the State Police, Ahmet Prençi some days ago, according to which the investigation on the murder of SP MP Fatmir Xhindi had been narrowed down to one single version. He said that the investigations had narrowed down but to several versions, adding that there is no evidence to suggest that the crime was politically motivated.


EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

EU Foreign Ministerial backs visa liberalisation for Western Balkans

The European Commission will come up with a legislative proposal before its summer break to provide for Schengen visa-free travel for citizens of Western Balkans countries that meet the criteria, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday in Luxembourg. He was speaking at a news conference after the Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said that EU foreign ministers had agreed to encourage the EC to come up with proposals so that all Western Balkans countries meeting the criteria could be allowed access to a liberalised visa system “ideally” by the end of 2009.