Albania’s Special Prosecutor’s Office has accused former president and prime minister Sali Berisha and his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, of passive corruption to the tune of €5.4 million, something they both deny, accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of targeting them for political reasons.
The Special Prosecutor, part of the Special Court Against Crime and Corruption (SPAK), set up by the EU and US, is designed to act independently and target high-level crime and corruption in the country.
On Saturday, Malltez was arrested at Rinas Airport and Berisha, who is sanctioned by the US and UK, was given the security measure “order to appear”. As he is a member of parliament, he has immunity and cannot be arrested unless it is lifted.
The accusations are that Berisha used his political position as prime minister between 2005 and 2009 to give political favours to businessman Fatmir Bektashi, who in turn gave Berisha and his son-in-law €5.4 million.
Berisha denies the charges and said the government and prosecution are playing a political game and that Rama wants to eliminate the opposition. He also accused the prosecution and court of violating the Albanian Constitution by imposing a security measure against him without the authorisation of parliament.
“Edi Rama thinks that engaging his prosecution against me and arresting my family members as political opponents, at the moment when the opposition has started more determined than ever the battle without return for the restoration of full and political pluralism, the return of free voting, and the rescue of Albania from the regime of the first and only narco-state in Europe, will be able to restrain, hit the opposition action,” declared Berisha.
Criminal proceedings began in 2020 when current interior minister Taulant Balla accused Berisha of being involved in the privatisation of grounds and other sports facilities belonging to FC Partizani in the capital Tirana that were later replaced with multi-storey apartment blocks built by a private company called Homeplan.
“Citizen FB is suspected of having committed the criminal offence of “Active corruption of high state officials”, provided for by Article 245 of the Criminal Code, as the one who collaborated with citizen JM to achieve the goal…Through the company “Homeplan” sh.pk, it provided the citizen JM with the granting of illegal benefits in the total amount of 672,976,832 lek or €5,420,345,” the prosecutor’s office said, referring to Bektashi and Berisha’s son in law.
Berisha is accused of facilitating the development of the area, through legal and by-law acts, but also by applying pressure on institutions to speed up the process.
The statement says Berisha also used various state structures to implement the privatisation process of state property.
Berisha counters that he did not take the decision to turn the land from a former state-owned football club into a site for private developers. He said it was Rama, when he was mayor of Tirana, under the government of former prime minister Fatos Nano.
He also said that Malltezi’s ownership of development companies is not a conflict of interest as he is not part of the Berisha family under the Family Code of Conflict of Interest Law.
(Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
Czech PM opposes EU staff’s ‘pro-Israel’ criticism
Source: euractiv.com
