Albania’s National Bureau of Investigation conducted searches of property belonging to former deputy prime minister Arben Ahmetj who is wanted on charges of corruption and money laundering, as suspicions emerge over a reported transfer of €1.8million to a Swiss bank account.
The NBI searched on Tuesday and seized mobile phones and other items. Ahmetaj responded to the inquiry on Facebook, criticising the action and denying any wrongdoing.
“Today, family members of mine aged 82 and below became subject to reprisal. Furthermore, their cell phones were seized for evidence of ‘incinerators’. Meanwhile, ‘spin doctor’ circulated the fake news that 1.8 million euros have been transferred,” he wrote.
It was reported that money was transferred from two banks in Albania to Ahmetaj’s partner in Switzerland in an account at the Credit Suisse bank.
Ahmetaj, who has held the position of deputy prime minister twice for the ruling Socialist Party, is currently under investigation for passive corruption, concealment of assets and money laundering., On July 14, the Albanian parliament lifted his parliamentary immunity to pave the way for his arrest, but it emerged he had already fled the country.
He is reportedly in the UK, and his lawyers say he will return “when he believes the truth will be revealed.” If he does not return in three weeks, there is a possibility for an international arrest warrant to be issued.
Ahmetaj is the highest-ranking official ever to face such charges in the country’s history.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the party and government would not tolerate anyone who abuses their position for personal benefit and that it is time for the justice system, currently facing an EU-backed overhaul and vetting process, to do its work independently from politics.
Ahmetaj is accused by the Special Court of Corruption and Organised Crime of at least six counts of corruption and more than one incident of money laundering. According to the prosecution, he benefitted from almost half a million euros via the fictitious sale of real estate and fictitious invoices involving two businessmen linked to companies in a corrupt incinerator deal.
The incinerators affair saw the government issue three concessions for the construction and operation of waste incinerators in Fier, Tirana, and Elbasan to a company with no experience in such matters and no demand.
First published in Exit, investigations revealed that the contracts would see the company being paid for every day the incinerators were not burning waste, even during construction. This has seen millions in taxpayers’ money be ploughed into them, to the benefit of those behind them, with nothing in the way of results.
So far, two other former government officials, Alqi Blako and Lefter Koka, have been arrested and are in prison awaiting trial.
Another name that has cropped up in the investigation is that of the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Velia. He reportedly sent a proposal to the government to involve the private sector in urban waste management through a public-private partnership.
Veliaj previously denied any involvement in the scandal, but documents reported on by BIRN suggest that he may have initiated the plan for one of the incinerators in Tirana.
When BIRN reported on the issue, Veliaj responded by calling the journalist, Ola Xama, a “militant” and “paid killer” and stating that his proposal differed from the one being investigated.
Media freedom organisations reacted to the incident and asked him to refrain from intimidating journalists, noting that such rhetoric seriously endangers the work of the media.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)