Albania Parliament Backs Arrest of Two MPs

Eighty of Albania's 140 legislators on Thursday voted to back a request from the general prosecutor for the arrest of MPs Tom Doshi and Marku Frroku.

The opposition centre-right Democratic Party boycotted the vote, calling the prosecutor's probe against Doshi and Frroku a farce.

Doshi was an MP for the Socialist Party but is now an independent after the Socialist parliamentary group expelled him on March 2. Frroku is chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, a minor party in the ruling Socialist Party-led coalition.

The two lawmakers are accused on three counts of giving false testimony about a fake assassination plot.  

Doshi claimed earlier this month that the speaker of the parliament, Ilir Meta, had hired a hitman to kill him and another MP, Mhill Fufi. He also said Frroku had informed him of the existence of the plot.

Doshi says he has proof that the murder plot was genuine, while Frroku denies having any knowledge of the matter.

Frroku said on Monday that he considered the prosecution's bid to arrest him and search his property "politically motivated.

"I don't understand why the prosecution wants to search my house in relation to charges about false testimonies," Frroku wrote on his Facebook page.