Tom Doshi

The lawyers for two Albanian MPs, Tom Doshi and Mark Frroku, who were arrested on Thursday on charges of faking testimonies, have filed briefs with Albania's Supreme Court seeking their immediate release.

The lawyers said the arraignment orders signed by General Prosecutor Adriatik Llala were illegal and out of line with the criminal procedural code.

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.

Albania's General Prosecutor's Office on Friday sought permission from parliament to arrest two MPs suspected of giving false testimonies.

The Prosecution Office said that Tom Doshi, who earlier this month claimed that the speaker of the parliament, Ilir Meta, had hired a hitman to kill him, invented the plot in collaboration with another MP, Mark Frroku.

Several thousand supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democratic Party showed their strength in Tirana on Thursday at a rally demanding the resignation of the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

Tom Doshi, a former Socialist Party MP, has caused ructions by claiming that Meta paid an assassin to have him and one other MP killed.

Supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democrats plan to gather on Thursday in front of the government office in Tirana amid allegations of a murder plot involving the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

The former Socialist Party MP who last week accused the Speaker of Parliament, Ilir Meta, of plotting his murder on Thursday said he learned of the plot after the assassin repented and told him the details.

Tom Doshi said the assassin told him that Meta had paid him 500,000 euro to kill him and an opposition Democratic Party MP, Mhill Fufi.

Tom Doshi, a businessman turned parliamentarian, lashed out on Monday against the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta, accusing him of plotting to assassinate him and an opposition MP, Mhill Fufi, while accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of turning a blind eye to the plot.

Albania's ruling centre-left coalition faces a battle to rally all its MPs on Thursday in parliament in order to pass plans for the country's administrative-territorial reform and amendments to the law for the organization of the High Council of Justice, HJC.

They require a qualified majority of 84 votes out 140 seats.