Former Albanian Prime Minster and President Sali Berisha did not attend court on Tuesday despite being ordered to appear on charges of corruption related to the privatisation of a former state-owned sports complex.
Berisha cannot be arrested due to his parliamentary immunity, but he is facing allegations of passive corruption for favouring his son-in-law, Jamambër Malltezi, in a deal that saw a state-owned sports complex privatised.
Malltezi, accused of corruption and money laundering and married to Berisha’s daughter, is believed to have profited by €5.4 million.
Instead of appearing in court, Berisha held a press conference where he said the investigation against him was instigated by Prime Minister Edi Rama, his long-time political opponent.
“As you know, Edi Rama has declared war on the opposition, and I tell the democrats everywhere that with the last act, he declared total war, and we will respond with all our strength and capabilities.”
Having dominated Albanian politics since the transition from communism to democracy in the early 90s and co-founding the first pluralist party, the Democratic Party, he leads one faction of the now-splitnered party.
Berisha is banned from entering the US and the UK, with the former doing so on the grounds that “ Berisha was involved in corrupt acts, such as misappropriation of public funds and interfering with public processes, including using his power for his own benefit and to enrich his political allies and his family members at the expense of the Albanian public’s confidence in their government institutions and public officials.”
Berisha denies all the allegations made against him by the US and UK and says Rama and billionaire philanthropist George Sorois are behind them.
In an interview with Euractiv in November 2022, Berisha said he is innocent of corruption and spoke about those he thinks are behind the move to sanction him.
“I have to tell you that for me, it is a shameful monument of corruption, the sanction put on Berisha by the State Department. Since the first day, I told the State Department that with the first proof, document, evidence, [if they make it public] I will say goodbye to politics, I won’t stay a day.”
He stated that since May 1991, US agencies have never found evidence against him.
“If I have done one thing all my life, it was fighting criminality. When I became prime minister, Albania was dominated by tyranny. And I succeeded, Albania became a NATO member. To sign the SAA (stabilisation and association agreement with the EU) or have visa liberalisation was because of a strong fight against organised crime. When I left the office, I continued my battle,” he told Euractiv.
The 26,000 Partizani sports complex in Tirana was previously state-owned but was privatised and handed to a company owned by Fatmir Bektashi, with Malltezi as a co-owner. It was then turned into apartments, with the company and its stakeholders profiting handsomely.
Prosecutors allege that Berisha used his position as prime minister to profit from the privatisation, push through acts and laws to facilitate it and pressure institutions to speed up their processes.
The Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organised Crime in Tirana has seized various immovable properties belonging to Malltezi and bank accounts and capital shares in multiple companies. Berisha is ordered to appear in court and is banned from leaving the country.
(Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com)
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Source: euractiv.com
