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The "Ahmetaj" file resembles a "Pandora's box"

2023-07-14 15:22:00, Politikë CNA

In Albania, former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj made it clear today that he has no intention of returning to the country, "before the truth comes out". He made these comments in a post on Facebook shortly before the start of the parliament session, in which the vote was almost unanimous in favor of the Special Prosecutor's Office's request for his arrest. The statements of the former deputy prime minister were reinforced by his lawyer Henrik Ligori who told the media that Mr. Ahmetaj "is near his family in England" and that he will return "when he has freedom".

Suspected of at least three criminal offenses, from corruption, concealment or non-declaration of assets and money laundering, former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj left Albania shortly before the Special Prosecutor's Office signed the letter addressed to the parliament to have warrant for his arrest. Last Friday he crossed the land border with Greece, and hypotheses about his whereabouts became the subject of speculation.

The manner of the removal and the coincidence with the action of the Prosecutor's Office raised strong doubts that it could be a question of a temporary removal at all. Today he himself, in a long reaction on "Facebook", he made it clear that it will be exactly like this. While writing that someone had told him that they wanted him in prison, he emphasized that "if I deserve it, of course it will happen... but not before the truth comes out".

Then everything was confirmed by his lawyer, Henrik Ligori, according to whom Mr. Ahmetaj "is with his family in England" and that he will return "when he has freedom".

While he explained his position, rejecting all the grave doubts raised against him by the Prosecution, his text was also full of insinuations. "I did not participate in the incinerator procedures. The letters will come out, and if someone tries to hide them, they will come out anyway", he wrote, considering himself a scapegoat. "My investigation had nothing to do with the incinerators, because I, due to my position, did not have the opportunity to be involved in the tendering procedures. Arbeni was investigated, his life for 25 years, and not the procedure. If the lake dries up, maybe there will be fish left on the bottom. Standard that should not belong to the new justice". And there were also notes of disappointment towards his left-wing colleagues, when he ironically wrote that "I also thank my colleagues from the majority and the opposition for the haste shown this week.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the investigations have proven a close connection between Mr. Ahmetaj and the two entrepreneurs who benefited from the incinerator contracts, Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtiri, as well as the support that, as the prosecutors say, the former member of the government, in the functions of the Minister of Economy and then of Finance, has offered them, receiving rewards in exchange.

The file against Mr. Ahmetaj, with the few elements that have been made public so far, resembles a "Pandora's box", which seems to imply that from private individuals, to a wide circle of officials of almost all levels, put serving the interests of the two entrepreneurs.

In the parliament, the opposition again used today's session to accuse the majority, pointing the finger at Prime Minister Edi Rama, as the main person responsible for the incinerators issue. "No one else, starting from Edi Rama and every minister who voted in the meetings of the council of ministers, not only closed their eyes, they rushed to seal, certify every letter, every document that went from Klodian Zoto's computer. This file proved to each of us what the state cap is. I know some of you read the file and didn't feel good. They did not feel good about the fact that they realized that the government of Edi Rama was not actually the government of Edi Rama, it was the government of Klodian Zoto. They realized that Edi Rama's government was not the guardian of the state budget,

The Socialists strictly adhered to the technical and procedural aspect of the case, voting afterwards, as they had warned, in favor of the request for Mr. Ahmetaj's arrest. An almost unanimous vote with only 3 abstentions.

While Prime Minister Rama, who stayed a few minutes in the hall at the opening of the session, to return after the intervention of the opposition representative, announced later that he would break the silence on the case, this evening, addressing public opinion./VOA