Albania court annuls law opening secret files

The law notably barred staff and informants of the notorious former secret police, the Sigurimi, from holding public posts.

TIRANA, February 3, 2010 (AFP) - Albania's Constitutional Court has annulled a law that opened communist-era secret security files and banned former police and informants from public functions, an official said Wednesday.

"The Constitutional Court has confirmed that the law ... was not in accordance with the Albanian constitution," spokeswoman Edlira Abazi told reporters.

Abazi said the court would soon publish its arguments against the law, which was adopted in 2008 by a parliament dominated by the ruling Democratic Party-led coalition of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The law notably barred staff and informants of the notorious former secret police, the Sigurimi, from holding public posts.

It applied to people linked to the organisation from November 1944, when Albania was liberated after World War II, to December 1990, when a multiparty system was introduced.

The ruling came after an appeal from the opposition Socialist Party which said the law would allow Berisha and his party to exploit their opponents for political gains and their personal profit.

The opposition said they would use the law to sack justice officials involved in investigations of widespread corruption, with cabinet members suspected of wrongdoing.

The European Union, the United States and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed concern that the law did not comply with international standards of democracy.

The European Council said it posed problems regarding human rights.

International officials had called for broader consensus on the law which was seen as crucial for democratisation in post-communist Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Late communist dictator Enver Hoxha led his Balkan country through more than four decades of international isolation using the feared intelligence service to maintain his grip on power.