Albanian police said Wednesday they arrested five opposition supporters for allegedly damaging ballot boxes and documents to prevent upcoming municipal elections, while the government proposed punishing people convicted of election interference by prohibiting them to leave the country.
The opposition is boycotting the local elections planned for June 30 and has threatened to disrupt them. Supporters of opposition parties and police clashed Wednesday in about half a dozen municipalities. Albanian media outlets reported that at least five civilians and officers were injured.
Police accused the people arrested of physically attacking state police officers while storming election offices in the northern Albania city of Shkodra a day earlier.
A demonstrator waves the Albanian national flag during an anti-government protest in Tirana, Albania, Saturday, June 8, 2019. Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters are gathering in an anti-government protest while the United States and the European Union caution their leaders to disavow violence and sit in a dialogue to overcome the political crisis. (AP PhotoHektor Pustina)
Albania's Socialist-led government insists the voting will go ahead as scheduled. Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj said police would arrest "anyone violating the law and will deposit enough evidence for their punishment."
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the government drafted a law that would prohibit citizens convicted of hampering an election process to leave Albania for five to 10 years.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe condemned the election-related conflicts, saying instigators and perpetrators of violence should be held legally accountable.
"Any attempt to derail a democratic process through violent actions infringes the law, stalls the progress of the country and stains its international reputation," the OSCE office in Albania said in a statement.
In another election development, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, said prosecutors have provided no evidence for money-laundering and improper campaign spending two years ago.
Basha and two other party officials have been accused of illegally spending about $650,000 money linked to Russia through a lobbyist and a foreign company with offices in Scotland.
Follow Llazar Semini on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lsemini
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A top European Union military officer said that a frigate that’s part of an EU mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels on Thursday morning.
Austrian Gen. Robert Brieger, who is chair of the EU’s military committee, said that it would be crucial for the bloc to “conserve resources” over the long haul because the threat posed by Houthi attacks “will not disappear” due to its connection to the Israel-Hamas war.
“The task given to the military is simply to protect merchant ships and to show the public that the European Union is not willing to accept a terrorist organization will interrupt the freedom of movement at sea,” Brieger said.
Brieger said that he’s asking EU members to provide the necessary resources to the EU mission dubbed Aspides — Greek for “shields.”
He said that it’s the first time that the EU has launched a naval operation in a hostile environment that's twice the size of the 27-nation bloc, calling it a “litmus test” that the bloc will pass successfully.
The commander of an EU naval mission in the Red Sea, Greek Rear Adm. Vasilios Gryparis, wants to significantly increase its size to better defend against possible attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen. Nineteen of the 27 EU nations are involved in the mission, but only four frigates are patrolling an area twice the size of the bloc.
The EU mission was established in February to defend civilian vessels and doesn't take part in any military strikes. The southern part of the Red Sea is deemed a high-risk zone.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which control much of Yemen’s north and west, launched a campaign of drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in November. They have also fired missiles toward Israel, although those have largely fallen short or been intercepted.
The attacks have hit maritime trade to Egypt and Europe, with only around half the usual number of ships moving through the area. It’s added up to two weeks of transit time for vessels that want to avoid the Suez Canal, hiking transport costs and shipping insurance.
The rebels have described their campaign as an effort to pressure Israel to end the wear. The ships targeted by the Houthis, however, largely have had little or no connection to Israel, the U.S. or other nations involved in the war.
Their campaign has continued despite more than two months of U.S.-led retaliatory airstrikes.
General Robert Brieger, chairman of the EU's Military Committee talks to the media during a press conference after a meeting with the Cyprus national guard chief Georgios Tsitsikostas at the Defense Ministry in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The European Union's top military official says a frigate that's part of an EU military mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping has destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. Brieger said the downing of the drone took place Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
General Robert Brieger, chairman of the EU's Military Committee talks to the media during a press conference after a meeting with the Cyprus national guard chief Georgios Tsitsikostas at the Defense Ministry in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The European Union's top military official says a frigate that's part of an EU military mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping has destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. Brieger said the downing of the drone took place Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
General Robert Brieger, chairman of the EU's Military Committee talks to the media during a press conference after a meeting with the Cyprus national guard chief Georgios Tsitsikostas at the Defense Ministry in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The European Union's top military official says a frigate that's part of an EU military mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping has destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. Brieger said the downing of the drone took place Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
General Robert Brieger, chairman of the EU's Military Committee talks to the media during a press conference after a meeting with the Cyprus national guard chief Georgios Tsitsikostas at the Defense Ministry in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The European Union's top military official says a frigate that's part of an EU military mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant shipping has destroyed a drone launched from an area in Yemen controlled by Houthi rebels. Brieger said the downing of the drone took place Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
