Veliaj reacts: They vetted me at the age of 21, I am honest

2025-07-30 11:44:00, Politikë CNA

Veliaj reacts: They vetted me at the age of 21, I am honest

Erion Veliaj

The mayor of Tirana, arrested on 13 charges for several serious criminal offenses, reacted a few days after being officially informed of the charges by SPAK.

In his reaction, Veliaj claims that he was unjustly held in prison at a time when the charges against him have already been dropped.

Veliaj claims that he has been subjected to a 21-year vetting and that no violations have been found, while hundreds of pages of court decisions with facts and evidence have implicated him several times in corruption and other criminal offenses.

We emphasize that Veliaj is in prison by court decision, even several such decisions, and not by prosecutors.

Erion Veliaj's reaction

Friends and well-wishers,

I hope you are all well, and as you prepare to go on vacation with your families, I ask you to spare me a few minutes, in response to your numerous letters, after 6 months in pretrial detention in Durrës.

Last week, five BKH agents arrived at the Durrës Penitentiary to communicate the charges to me, even though I had authorized the lawyers to receive the file in Tirana. An hour before, the media arrived first, and were systematically informed about the spectacle with prisoner 9216 - clearly, neither by me nor by the lawyers, as we were unaware of the visit.

No surprise here! Special prosecutors make sure that everything is leaked to some special media before the victim knows, in flagrant violation of investigative secrecy, the presumption of innocence, the country's Constitution, and fundamental human rights, whoever the person is and whatever his work is.

I took the time to read the indictment, which was a copy-paste of the detention request, add to this the wiretaps with the family, of 9216, from the prison phone and the prison van, where after three marathon days of mass I had to reassure the family about this bitter separation from them and the city I love and serve. These additions to the charges of “agitation and propaganda” in prison, serve only to emphasize how weak the original indictment is, how flimsy the evidence is, and how embarrassed my prosecutors must be about their investigation. They have produced nothing more than innuendo - rumors, anonymous letters, lightning bolts, slander, fabrications and assumptions for a sheriff's thriller, which I am convinced will not even hold up in court.

In the finale of a personal, family and tribal vetting, from 2004 to 2025, and a 2-year persecution (starting after winning with around 160 thousand votes for the third time in Tirana), with an anonymous letter of a falsified report, in the name of a Nesti Angoni who, even according to the prosecutors, "does not exist", the conclusion of the indictment was this:

No violation was found in 2 years as minister and 10 years as mayor: no project, no decision in violation of the law. No violation of mine was found for the incinerator, the Theater, Skanderbeg Square, the New Bazaar, the Pyramid, the Stadium, Astir, the Boulevard, the new neighborhoods in Kombinat and 5 Maji; nor for “Xhon Belushi” Street and a thousand or so other streets; nor for the “Sami Frashëri” School or the 50 new schools, nor for 110 kindergartens and nurseries; nor for hundreds of thousands of trees planted and 91 playgrounds; nor for free passes for pensioners and students, nor for the procedures initiated for free lunch for Tirana students - all of this in the investigation by SPAK.

So, nothing related to my duties as a 3-time elected mayor or the highly debated issues like the ones above.

The good news is that I have passed the 21-year vetting, unprecedented for any politician in Albania. Add to this the absurd voyeurism, intimidation and humiliation by agents, in the operating room, two weeks ago, to ensure that, in addition to the external vetting, I also passed the internal vetting of all organs - from the esophagus to the rectum - accompanied by 30 guards from various police, prison, state, etc.

This too, part of this deliberate and humiliating innuendo, where the prey is first selected and, if no criminal evidence is found in the victim's work, vetting is done from the age of 25, without political function, to the colonoscopy of 2025. And when nothing is found again, they open files on the wife, brother, mother, deceased father-in-law, cousins, and the entire clan and social circle - all in their private affairs.

To whom did the drug lords do this? To whom did the serial killer do this involving the entire tribe of society? To whom did the criminal have his entire family persecuted?

Today, only my son is without a file, but they still have 12 years to prepare him, when he reaches adulthood. But, today everyone learned that I live in a 2+1 apartment, on the fourth floor of a building, in a neighborhood where I coexist peacefully with many of the critics of my work.

Not in villas, not in resorts, not in towers!

But, while the accusation has nothing to do with my work in the municipality or ministry, some questions remain unanswered:

1. Who is Nesti Angoni and for how many politicians has this 20-year vetting been done with anonymous letters, as in my case? Is this investigation and persecution of me being used as a "political elimination", to become the new standard for anyone who is targeted?

2. Why do all the judges and ladies who were chosen for my measure in the GJKKO suddenly get sick and resign? Is there coordination between the prosecutor's office and the court to organize this attack on the elected mayor?

3. Why was the media denigration never investigated through the release of all investigative secrets on SPAK portals, where the documentary formats of prosecutors were clearly distinguished, and not those given to lawyers? This serious violation of the law cannot occur without the knowledge and approval of SPAK.

4. Is there a conflict of interest when one of the prosecutors has openly expressed dissatisfaction with a building permit he received from the municipality? In a democratic society, shouldn't every defendant have the right to a prosecutor without a conflict of interest?

5. Why am I being denied meetings with my international lawyers, who are preparing my case for the European Court of Human Rights, even though the European Convention - to which Albania is a party - clearly guarantees the fundamental right to defend oneself and freely choose legal representation?

6. Was the 1-year-long violence, with Molotov cocktails and fire, in front of Tirana City Hall, carried out by masked individuals who, according to reports, were transported from other districts, ever investigated? Who coordinated the violence to coincide with my illegal vetting? Who financed it for 45 weeks?

7. If the investigation is over, why am I still being held in detention - away from my family and the city I serve? Would it make sense for me - the current Mayor of Tirana - to flee, when I have such close family, political and social ties to Tirana and have returned to Albania from abroad several times, knowing that I was the subject of this criminal investigation? Does it really make sense for me, as Mayor in my third term, to commit serious criminal offenses, while on parole and knowing that I am under unprecedented surveillance and control? I have had a clean record until this persecution, and currently enjoy the trust and overwhelming support of the majority of Tirana's citizens - so isn't it simply strange to think that I would commit further criminal offenses? In fact, when I had the opportunity to serve the citizens of Tirana, the city was radically transformed.

I hope that the SPAK press office will give serious answers to these 7 questions; I claim the same seriousness, at least, with which my entire file has been flowing in the media, for 2 years now. If SPAK cannot answer these 7 questions in a credible and legitimate manner, I will not only reject the unworthy accusations, but I will continue to fight for what is right, and I will not allow these serious abuses of power to continue without denouncing them, along with the damage they have caused to the citizens of Tirana and Albania.

The immense power of the prosecution, acting in a coordinated manner with other actors, has violently and unreasonably and disproportionately superimposed the power that derives from the people, with the sovereign vote for the mayor, in brutal violation of the Constitution and local autonomy.

This unchecked power, which has been operating for more than two years in a coordinated campaign of media-political attacks to finally massacre the current mayor in public, is in complete contradiction to the principles of democracy and the rule of law. Imagine now how the people without support, without opportunities, without a voice, who have to face this unchecked super power, are punched daily. If such abusive behavior is not denounced and reformed, can Albania ever reach its true potential? Will it ever be accepted into the European Union without genuine legal guarantees? Will investors and tourists continue to come to Albania, to a country where they can be subjected to such illegal standards?

For all the zealots in the disco news, who speak with a confidence that makes you think they sleep in the same bed as me in the cell, my lawyers will think in the defamation courts, where to date we have won 100% of the trials - from Ahmadinejad's son to the tired journalists' carboys.

As long as I have a 24/7 camera above the door and another above the window, rest assured that I am more observed here than I was in Tirana, with all the digging into every aspect of my life. They are ruthless in vetting others, never their own.

And to those who laugh that I shed tears for my son, I say that they should be more concerned about the men who don't cry than those who still have their hearts in the country and are systematically whipped by longing for their child. Having built 50 schools for the children of Tirana and not being able to accompany your son to first grade is a painful experience.

But, I am not alone! In prison, I have known dozens of cases of injustice. Throughout the country, thousands of people are held in pre-trial detention, without a sentence, the highest percentage in Europe. There are thousands of families who suffer an unbearable emotional and economic burden just because the husband/son/father is detained for an extremely long time without a sentence; families who are impoverished every day by the “detention tax” to keep the “man of the house”, who until yesterday provided for the family, with food and clothing.

Therefore, I will also be their voice, that of the thousands of families who suffer unjustly from this criminal tyranny.

Finally, for the opponents who could not defeat me with votes and are rejoicing in this lynching and temporary hysteria, I remind you that every decade I have started my life from scratch: at 10 years old I was left alone and started over from emigration to the figs of the Bazaar; in the 20s I left America and created MJAFT, the largest organization; in the 30s I represented Gjirokastra and reformed the Ministry that affected work, pensions, the persecuted and the disabled; in the 40s I led Tirana as the European Capital of Youth, Sports and Culture.

So, whether 10, 20, 30, or 40, I will not abandon the causes I believe in and hold fast to. And this of social justice, and not of special tyranny against the weak, will engage me more and more. I will continue to fight for Tirana, the city I love so much, and for Albania, the country I love with all my heart!

Thank you for reading me!

I wish you happy holidays!

Hug your family and children, because you never know when you will be violently separated from them, as happened to me!

I love you very much,