Behind the scenes of the visit to the USA/ Ilir Beqe was refused an American visa?!

2023-07-19 22:57:00, Politikë CNA

Behind the scenes of the visit to the USA/ Ilir Beqe was refused an American

For several days, a delegation of the Albanian government headed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, has been visiting the United States of America. The focus of the visit is high-level political meetings at the UN and Washington to discuss the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

A diplomatic source told Lapsi.al that Ilir Beqaj, the former Minister of Health that Edi Rama empowered in his third term by creating an agency that administers all international funds and foreign aid, was expected to be part of this delegation. for Albania (SASPAC).

But in reality, Beqaj could not cross the ocean to arrive in the USA. According to the same source for Lapsi.al, the former minister with an open case in SPAK, could not get a visa from the American Embassy in Tirana. It is not clear whether we are dealing with the rejection of the American visa for Ilir Beqaj or the withdrawal of the latter from the application, recognizing precisely the difficult relationship he has with the diplomatic headquarters on Elbasan Street. The fact is that he could not travel to the USA together with the delegation headed by Belinda Balluku.

Yuri Kim's "buffet" for Ilir Beqe

In July of last year, American ambassador Yuri Kim made a demonstrative departure from a meeting organized by the Ministry of Interior when Ilir Beqaj took the floor. The abandonment of the meeting by the US ambassador while Ilir Beqja was speaking gave a strong message that his rehabilitation would not be accepted by the Americans, who have a strong influence on SPAK. After Yuri Kim, not even the EU ambassador at the time, Luigi Soreca, stayed to listen to Beqe's speech. Systematically afterwards, even Soreca's successor in Tirana avoided every meeting where Ilir Beqja was present.

As for the incident with Yuri Kim, the US embassy that evening took care to serve in the media exactly the ignoring that the American chief diplomat did to Beqe. Tv News 24 reported what Rilindja propagandists skillfully hid from the central government. So, the Americans were interested in what happened in "Rogner" being known publicly, and so it happened.

File in SPAK

A few weeks after the creation of SPAK, Nisma Thurje filed on December 23, 2019, a complaint and requested the criminal liability of the officials of the Ministry of Health, to which they had signed the concession contract for the sterilization of surgical equipment worth 100 million USD.

For 4 years, SPAK has registered a proceeding related to this report for the three reported criminal offenses, including "violation of the equality of participants in public tenders or auctions"; "abuse of duty"; "passive corruption of high state officials or local elected officials" - but it has not yet identified the officials responsible for their commission. The former Minister of Health, Ilir Beqaj, was also questioned by the prosecutors. Today, 4 years later, the fate of this file is unknown even though it was the first denunciation that was filed with SPAK.

Connection with Rama

The friendship between Edi Rama and Ilir Beqja is early. In their youth, both were basketball players in the Dinamo team. Beqja was one of Rama's exclusive contributions to the Socialist Party, which continued afterwards with the election as a deputy and the catapult as a minister. In short, the two have known each other for a lifetime.

Although he has always been an obedient soldier of Edi Rama and has done everything the head of the Renaissance organization wanted, Beqaj has nothing certain that he will not have the fate of Lefter Koka, Vangjush Dako, Alqi Bllakos, Saimir Tahir, Safet Gjic and Arben Ahmetaj recently.

It remains to be seen what SPAK will do with the sterilization concession affair file and what Edi Rama himself will decide next, will he take Ilir Beqen to the other party comrades in the cell or will he become a shield for his arrest through the control that the prime minister has in the new justice system?/ Lapsi.al