Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents (AIDSSH) has revealed that a high-profile politician, with the initials I.M, was part of the former State Security during the communism period. 

Based on this case, the Documents' Authority has asked the Parliament of Albania to change the law on files in the country, because it favors senior politicians and MPs of the Parliament of Albania, who are not punished for being collaborators of the State Security. 

Current law provides that those politicians who have a clean security certificate from the commissions set up during the late 1990s, the Mezini-Bezhani commissions, will not be punished by the current authority. 

In the letter sent to the Assembly, the authority also requests that the law be corrected to verify these officials who have come out clean in the previous commissions, adding that the Assembly was requested via e-mail to verify the figure of the citizen I.M. in the classified files of the former State Security. 

Announcement by the AIDSSH below:

Authority for Information on the Documents of the former State Security, an independent institution, created for the purpose of informing individuals, institutions, researchers and the media with the documents of the former State Security, has been exercising its activity for 5 years, based on legality , transparency and cooperation with state institutions. In the framework of the daily work with the processing of the materials of the former State Security, the Authority has recently come across information and data on a person with a high political profile. The institution was requested via e-mail to verify the figure of citizen I. M. in classified files of the former State Security. The finding was reviewed responsibly and the materials were made known to all elected members. 

With decision no. 321, dated 26.07.2022 of the Authority, the data was forwarded to the Assembly of Albania. For the identification of such materials and information on them, the Authority requests attention to the amendments to law no. 45/2015 "On the Right to Information for the Documents of the former State Security of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania" amended and the repeated problems and difficulties in the implementation of some provisions. Specifically: Verification of officials prior to appointment to office, pursuant to Article 29, point 4 of Law 45/2015 as amended, which stipulates: "The Authority does not administer requests for information for officials who are proposed to be appointed or appointed to constitutional institutions and authorities public, when the Authority administers or has been made available the original authentic document of the image purity certificate." So, the names reviewed earlier by the Mezini-Bezhani commissions are not verified by the Authority, according to the legal provision. On the other hand, Article 29 point 4 of Law no. 45/2015, as amended, applies only to information requests submitted by constitutional institutions and public authorities, and not to individual information requests. In this case, the Authority is not conditioned by a mandatory norm and gives the documentation to the administration, as it results from the verification. Several times, (November 2018, February 2020, etc.), the Authority has submitted proposals for legal intervention regarding the provision in question, addressed to the Assembly of Albania, the CEC, the Special Commission for Electoral Reform, the co-chairmen of the Special Commission for Electoral Reform and the OSCE. The concern was recently presented by Mrs. Gentiana Sula, in the plenary session of July 21, 2022, during the activity reporting for the year 2021. In these circumstances, in the cases examined with responsibility for the subjects A. D., Th. S., S.H, Xh. Sh., D. Ç., and I. M., the Authority has based its decision-making on the request for appointment/promotion. 

In cases where the request for the same names is made for image verification, the Authority administers all the documentation on the person in question. The impasse puts the institution in the position that, a decision of its own in response to the institutional request, declares that the subject possesses the certificate of image purity of him from previous verification commissions. The other decision, - taken in response to the individual request, - states that the same subject results with documents from the former State Insurance.

Both decisions are legal and in accordance with law no. 45/2015, amended. Found more than once in such a situation, the Authority assesses that any circumstance or information known by the applicant or the public, and of which the Authority is aware or has information that exists, should be reflected and be an integral part of decision in the descriptive and reasoning part of each decision. The Assembly of Albania has been asked to intervene to resolve this situation, where the documentation of the operation of the previous commissions is not only physically and formally deficient, but in some cases has turned out to be incorrect in the verifications carried out by the Authority in the documents of former State Security. 

The improvement of the law helps to carry out work processes with responsibility, integrity and transparency, to maintain the credibility of the institution for the Albanian society and international partners, as long as the figures verified for appointment, promotion or as elected central and local, play an important role in decision-making and public policies. Secondly, the verification of candidates for MPs/mayors and the minimum engagement of political entities, for the implementation of Article 30 of Law 45/2015, as amended. In the parliamentary elections of June 2017, out of 18 registered political parties, only two such parties (respectively PDIU, 144 names and the People's Alliance for Justice, 141 names) submitted a request for verification of candidates for MPs. 

For the April 2021 parliamentary elections, only four political entities (Albanian Labor Movement Party, Democratic Obedience Party, European Equality and Justice Alliance Party, (ABDE), Democratic Christian Alliance Party of Albania), a total of 61 candidates, took into consideration this process of important for the integrity of the elections. The authority has written to all political parties registered in the elections (31 in total) that, in accordance with Article 30 of Law 45/2015, as amended, to cooperate with the institution for the fulfillment of tasks for the verification of candidates for MPs in the Assembly of Albania, mayors and district council heads. 

For the 2017 and 2021 parliamentary elections, the Authority verified 446 candidates for MPs, where 441 turned out to be without documents and 5 candidates for MPs appeared as collaborators in the documents of the former State Security. 

The authority requests to examine with priority the problems raised in the years regarding the verification of the figure of the officials who are appointed, raised to office and political representatives who participate in central and local election campaigns, which have a direct impact on public policies in the country. The authority assures the Albanian society, interest groups, institutions and partners, that it will continue to carry out with integrity, transparency and institutional responsibility the duties assigned by the law, for the clarification of the communist past, in function of the future and the consolidation of democracy.