Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

2025-09-13 13:38:00, Aktualitet CNA

SPAK has conducted a series of investigations related to the Municipality of Tirana, its mayor politically dismissed in the SP Assembly by the Prime Minister, and the directors and officials of this institution who have ended up behind bars and have been accused of serious crimes after being caught in corruption.

In fact, not only included in the "5D" file, but also in the Tirana incinerator file.

Today we will bring you some of the directors and officials of the Municipality of Tirana who were investigated, accused and convicted by the courts for serious criminal offenses.

The fish "stinks" from the head

The head of the Municipality of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, was arrested on February 10, 2025. SPAK has completed the investigations and sent his file for trial.

The mayor, who has already been politically dismissed by Rama, Erion Veliaj, is accused of corruption, laundering the proceeds of crime, bringing prohibited items into the cell, abuse of office, and concealment and failure to declare assets.

Caught in corruption 9 times, Veliaj faces 13 charges for several serious criminal offenses.

SPAK closes the file/ 13 charges against Erion Veliaj
September 10, 15:36

"5D" folder

After the incinerators, one of the most corrupt affairs in Albania was the "5D" file, where directors and municipal officials were involved in corruption by stealing public money.

Directors and officials of the Municipality of Tirana were arrested and charged in this affair.

Red Apple

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

Accused of the criminal offenses "Passive corruption of persons exercising public functions", committed 7 (seven) times, 4 (four) times committed in collaboration, "Refusal to declare, failure to declare, concealment or false declaration of assets, private interests of elected persons and public servants or of any other person who has a legal obligation to declare", committed 5 (five) times, provided for by Articles 259 and 25 (according to the content of this provision before the amendments made by Law No. 43/2021, dated 23.03.2021) and 257/a/2 of the Criminal Code, as well as "Laundering of the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity", provided for by Article 287, letters (a), (b), (d), committed in the qualifying circumstance "in collaboration" according to Article 287, paragraph (2) of the Criminal Code.

Mariglen Qato

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

Accused of the criminal offenses “Passive corruption of persons exercising public functions”, committed 4 (four) times, committed in collaboration, “Refusal to declare, failure to declare, concealment or false declaration of assets, private interests of elected persons and public servants or of any other person who has a legal obligation to declare”, provided for by Articles 259 and 25 (according to the content of this provision before the amendments made by Law No. 43/2021, dated 23.03.2021) and 257/a/2 of the Criminal Code, as well as “Laundering of the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity”, provided for by Article 287, letters (a), (b), (d), committed in the qualifying circumstance “in collaboration” according to Article 287, paragraph (2) of the Criminal Code.

Taulant Tusha

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

Accused of the criminal offenses "Violation of equality of participants in tenders or public auctions", committed in collaboration, provided for by articles 258 and 25 of the Criminal Code (according to the content of this provision before the amendments made by law no. 43/2021, dated 23.03.2021) and "Violation of equality of participants in tenders or public auctions", committed twice, committed in collaboration, provided for by articles 258/2 and 25 of the Criminal Code.

Enton Punavija

Julian Zanaj

Accused of the criminal offenses of "Violation of equality of participants in tenders or public auctions", committed twice, committed in collaboration, provided for by articles 258/2 and 25 of the Criminal Code.

Albano Janku

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

Nestor Muhametllari

Accused of the criminal offenses "Active corruption against persons exercising public functions", committed 2 (two) times, committed in collaboration, provided for by articles 244 and 25 of the Criminal Code (according to the content of this provision before the amendments made by law no. 43/2021), as well as "Laundering of the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity", provided for by article 287, letters (a), (b), (d), committed in the qualifying circumstance "in collaboration" according to article 287, paragraph (2) of the Criminal Code.

Trading company "5D Construction" sh.pk

Former general director of Tirana Parking, Eglantina Zere

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

Eglantina Zere, along with four other Tirana Municipality officials, Rivjola Baxha, Enkelejda Qyta, Bruno Koçi and Kristo Zhulati, are accused of the criminal offense of "Violation of equality of participants in public tenders or auctions".

Eglantina Zere, in the capacity of the head of the contracting authority "Tirana Parking", an institution under the Municipality of Tirana, in collaboration with the defendants Enkelejda Qyta, Bruno Koçi and Rivjola Baxha, in the capacity of members of the Bid Evaluation Commission and the member of the Procurement Unit, Kristo Zhulati, have created unfair advantages and privileges for the merger of the winning economic operators "VAS Konstruksion sh.pk" and "Rroku Guest" sh.pk, in the procurement procedure with the object "Reconstruction of the Selman Stermasi parking lot", held on October 1, 2019.

Zere was sentenced to 1 year in prison, but will serve 9 months in prison, because 1/3 is reduced by the summary trial. The other 4 defendants in this process were also sentenced to 9 months each, who also received a sentence reduction to 6 months in prison.

Deborah Keci

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

From the investigative actions carried out in connection with these criminal proceedings, evidence has been collected and the fact has been proven that the trading company "5D Konstruksion" sh.pk (the same as the company with the name "VAS Konstruksion" sh.pk), which is indirectly owned by citizens Redi Molla and Mariglen Qato, former officials in the capacity of General Director and Director of the Directorate in institutions subordinate to the Municipality of Tirana, has benefited from public contracts in violation of public procurement rules from the contracting authorities "Tirana Parking" and "Tirana Sports Club".

The investigations conducted have proven that the defendant Deborah Keçi, in her capacity as the head of the contracting authority "Tirana Sports Club", an institution subordinate to the Municipality of Tirana, in collaboration with the defendants Teuta Guri, Jetjon Mera and Rejnaldo Gjerazi, in their capacity as members of the Bid Evaluation Committee, have created unfair advantages and privileges for the economic operator "5D Konstruksion" sh.pk in the procurement procedure with the object "Reconstruction of the Wrestling Gym" held on 09.12.2020.

From the evidence collected during the investigations, it has been proven that the defendant Deborah Keçi, in her capacity as the head of the contracting authority, agreed with the representative of the economic operator "VAS Konstruksion" sh.pk to declare her the winner of the procurement procedure at the stage of preparing the documents, before the procedure was even announced.

Defendants Teuta Guri, Jetjon Mera and Rejnaldo Gjerazi, in their capacity as members of the Bid Evaluation Committee, have not exercised their duty to evaluate and classify bids in accordance with the law, but have evaluated and classified in violation of public procurement rules the economic operator "5D Konstruksion" sh.pk, which was predetermined to be declared the winner by defendant Deborah Keçi.

Deborah Keçi was sentenced to one year in prison, but she benefited from a shortened trial. For this reason, her sentence was converted to 16 months of probation.

Teuta Guri, Renaldo Gjerasi and Etion Meren were also sentenced to 9 months in prison, converted into 60 hours of community service.

Tirana Incinerator

Facts/ The entire Municipality of Tirana in prison

The Tirana incinerator is one of the most corrupt affairs in the history of Albania.

Millions of euros have been paid for an incinerator that doesn't exist, and all we have is a mountain of garbage and a catastrophic situation.

In fact, only a few low-level officials have been held responsible for this affair, because even though it is the biggest affair of the century, we have a prosecutor who is sleeping on this file.

Some of the directors and officials associated with Veliaj who have been accused and arrested in this affair are:

Taulant Tusha, who is also involved in the "5D" file, and Namik Simixhiu.

Simixhiu is suspected of committing the criminal offense of "Abuse of office" committed in special collaboration in the form of a structured criminal group.

These are just some of the directors and officials close to the Municipality of Tirana and Erion Veliaj who have been arrested and charged with two of the most corrupt affairs: the Tirana incinerator and the "5D" file.

There are other directors who have been involved in corrupt schemes who are being investigated and should be investigated by the judiciary./ CNA