Albania Arrests MP After Shooting

Armando Prenga.

Prenga, 41, was arrested in the early hours of Saturday by the police in his hometown of Lac, 40 kilometres north of Tirana, accused of opening fire with a pistol and injuring Tom Cali, a 66-year-old fisherman, during a brawl that left seven people injured.

The Socialist Party lawmaker, who previously attracted notoriety for tussling with two opposition MPs in two separate incidents in parliament, and has often been accused by the opposition of having a criminal background, had his parliamentary immunity lifted on Monday so he can be prosecuted.

Police said that the conflict started in a restaurant in the coastal village of Patok where a lagoon with lucrative fishing is situated.

The lagoon had been used by Cali family for two decades but this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries transferred the fishing rights to a newly-formed company owned by the brother of MP Prenga, through a public tender.

The Cali family alleged the tender was manipulated and apparently refused to give up the fishing rights. The opposition claimed in April this year that the fishing rights were used to reward the Prenga family for its financial help to the Socialist Party during the 2013 election.

On Friday evening, members of both families became involved in a brawl near the lagoon.

Local media reported that after the brawl, members of the Cali family went to the police station in the town of Lac to report Prenga and his relatives.

At this point, Prenga appeared with a pistol and opened fire, according to the police.

Prenga later told the media that he had acted in self-defence.

Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on Facebook that Prenga must be prosecuted and claimed that impunity had ended with the previous government.

“No one is above the law,” Rama said.

But the leader of the opposition, Lulzim Basha, accused police of trying to help Prenga by hiding the news for more than ten hours and claimed that they had also tried to manipulate the facts to conceal the truth.

Prenga was elected on a Socialist Party ticket as MP for Lezha County in 2013.

Prenga is one of several MPs referred to by the media as “strongmen” in the Lac area. Another is Arben Ndoka, whose criminal past was revealed last year.