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Veliaj in SPAK/ VOA: He stayed for 1 hour at the entrance of the building

2024-04-30 14:52:00, Aktualitet CNA

Veliaj in SPAK/ VOA: He stayed for 1 hour at the entrance of the building

Erion Veliaj in SPAK

In Albania, the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, has been summoned to the Special Prosecutor's Office against Organized Crime and Corruption, as part of the ongoing investigations into the Tirana incinerator. Mr. Veliaj was called to appear at 10:00, but he went almost an hour earlier, being forced to wait for the time set by the prosecutors, at the entrance of the building.

This is the first time that Mr. Veliaj has been summoned to the Special Prosecutor's Office, while for a long time he has been at the center of attacks by the opposition, which considers him to be the key person in the Tirana incinerator case. A similar charge was issued against him, but without providing evidence and facts, also former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, on the run since last summer, after the Special Prosecutor's Office requested his arrest, for the issue of incinerators.

In August last year, the Special Prosecutor's Office seized the waste treatment plant in Tirana. The contract for its construction, with an estimated investment cost of 128 million euros (without VAT), was signed by the company "Integrated Energy BVSPV" sh.pk and the Ministry of Environment, in 2017. After the name of the company, there was another one with headquarters in the Netherlands, "Integrated Energy BV", which later changed its name to "Geogenix BV", while their owners remained unclear. But the Special Prosecutor's Office announced that according to the investigations, the two entrepreneurs Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtiri are the "de facto" owners of the Tirana plant, as well as the other two in Ebasan and Fier.

In December, the Special Court signed, at the request of the Special Prosecutor's Office, 15 arrest warrants, as part of the investigation into the Tirana incinerator, of which 6 were under house arrest. Among the arrest warrants was the name of Taulant Tushes, General Director of Public Works in the Municipality of Tirana, one of the most important and weighty posts, considered one of the closest collaborators of the mayor Erion Veliaj. Also, there was an arrest warrant for another former director of the Municipality, Namik Thimixhi, who covered waste management and was directly subordinate to Tushe. The arrest warrants again affected the former Minister of the Environment Lefter Koka, as well as the former Socialist MP Alqi Blako, as well as the two entrepreneurs Mirel Mërtiri and Klodian Zoto.

Mr. Veliaj has repeatedly dismissed the doubts about his involvement in the case of the Tiraa incinerator, with which, as he said, "the only thing that connected me was the cleaning of this city, which is now exemplary in cleanliness".

In March of this year, the Municipality of Tirana received another blow when two former leaders in the Municipality of Tirana, Redi Molla, who has been in charge of the company "Water and Sewerage", and Maringlen Qato, until some time ago in charge of the Inspectorate of Territory Protection, were arrested under suspicion of "passive corruption" and "concealment and non-declaration of assets". A second arrest warrant was also issued for Taulant Tushen, suspected of "violation of equality in tenders".

The former directors, Molla and Qato, are suspected to be the real owners of the 5D company, which, according to the investigations so far, has irregularly benefited from tenders from agencies under the Municipality. In a long public appearance at the beginning of the month, Mr. Veliaj distanced himself from his former directors, stating that any person involved must face justice himself.

The opposition, which has demanded an extraordinary meeting of the Municipal Council, where Mr. Veliaj can give explanations, has been organizing protests in front of the Municipality for several weeks, with calls for his resignation. The protests have been accompanied by tensions with the numerous police forces as well as violent episodes of throwing Molotov cocktails towards the entrance of the City Hall building. The next protest was announced this afternoon, shortly before the start of the regular meeting of the Municipal Council./ VOA