Detained Albanian MPs Challenge Arraignment

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.

Doshi and Frroku were detained on Thursday after MPs in parliament voted to lift their immunity from arrest, following a request from the General Prosecutor's office.

The MPs are accused of providing false testimony to prosecutors in connection with an alleged murder plot. Doshi claimed the Speaker of Parliament, Ilir Meta, hired a hitman to kill him and another MP.

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 the alleged assassination plot.  

The opposition centre-right Democratic Party boycotted the vote in parliament, accusing the prosecutor's office of failing to investigate the allegations in depth.

Meta has described the allegations that he plotted MPs' deaths as a "farce", created by Doshi to put pressure on the centre-left coalition government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The two MPs will be tried before the Supreme Court, which acts as first-instance court for cases against senior government officials and members of parliament.