Veliaj Denounces in Court: I Was Taken from Office in State Uniform, My Mandate Is Not Anyone’s Property

This Friday, the Administrative Court is examining the case in which the plaintiff is Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, while the defendants include Ols Dado and the Presidency.

The hearing is unfolding amid intense legal debates.

The mayor contests the fact that prosecutor Dado was appointed irregularly, in violation of legal procedures.

During his courtroom address, Veliaj stated that the situation is creating a clear disparity, where one side is benefiting from public interest while the other is losing institutional support from bodies like the High Prosecutorial Council and the State Advocate.

According to him, either the High Prosecutorial Council is showing disregard for the court, or it has reached the same conclusion as the general public: that Ols Dado lacks the status of a prosecutor and that the mayor has been deprived of his liberty.

Veliaj forcefully stressed that the position of the capital’s leader cannot be turned into an object to be taken up and discarded at whim.

He recounted that someone, wearing the official state uniform, physically removed him from his workplace. He told the panel of judges that their role is essential in restoring citizens’ trust in the justice system.

“When a person disguises himself as a police officer or prosecutor in this spectacle, he jeopardizes the fate of an entire city,” he declared.

The Mayor of Tirana also noted that he secured two electoral mandates without ever needing to appeal to the Strasbourg Court, and warned that if such an act can happen to him, then every other citizen is at risk of becoming a victim of a similar scenario.