TIRANA, Albania (Reuters) – Albanian opposition politicians set fire to a pile of wooden chairs outside parliament on Monday to protest the imprisonment of a colleague.
At the start of the regular parliamentary session, members of the opposition carried chairs from the parliament chamber and set them ablaze on the steps of the building. Security guards quickly extinguished the fire.
On Friday, Albania’s appeals court upheld a lower court ruling to sentence Ervin Salianji, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, to a one-year prison term.
The lower court found Salianji guilty of making a “false report” against the former interior minister. Salianji has denied any wrongdoing and described the trial as politically motivated.
The parliament speaker, Elisa Spiropali, of the ruling Socialist Party, said that by burning chairs the Democratic Party deputies showed “disrespect for citizens.”
“Today’s arson, and the extreme acts of violence inside the hall, have turned the Assembly into a crime scene, to be investigated by the law enforcement bodies,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Earlier this month, Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha, who had been under house arrest since December, was indicted on corruption charges for actions he took when he was prime minister. Berisha also denies any wrongdoing.
The opposition party has called for a major protest in the capital Tirana on Oct. 7.
(Reporting by Florion Goga; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Christina Fincher and Leslie Adler)
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