TIRANA, October 8 – Another accusation has been filed against the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Finance, at the same time Socialist Party deputy, Arben Ahmetaj, who is on the run after being wanted by the special anti-corruption prosecution authority, SPAK, for the corrupt incinerator affair.
According to the charge filed by SPAK prosecutor, Elvin Gokaj, which was reported by local media on Sunday, Ahmetaj violated the law by signing the privatization of a former bakery factory in Tirana.
Ahmetaj is accused of causing damage of 7 billion lek or 66 million euros to private owners of the property, who won the court proceedings up to the Constitutional Court over the property in question. But Ahmetaj decided on the privatization in the capacity of the former Minister of Finance in the first Rama cabinet, and a complex of buildings and a shopping center in a Tirana neighborhood was built on the property in question. SPAK has separated the case and is continuing the investigation against other officials in relation to this case, including the owner of the complex.
There is an international arrest warrant for Ahmetaj issued in absentia “Arrest in prison” for the criminal offenses: “Corruption”, “money laundering” and “concealment of assets”. The former minister is suspected of having benefited money and property from the bosses of the incinerators, Mirel Mërtiri and Klodian Zoto, who are also internationally wanted.
In a tit-for-tat reaction, Ahmetaj has dismissed the accusation from an unknown country far from Albania, saying that he was not the ‘black sheep’, but another one was ‘real head’. He did not mention any names, as PM Edi Rama had picked up Ahmetaj in the previous post.
“The recent facts published by the media have proven what I have said, that there is an organized political-media segment financed by incinerators, with tentacles in justice, who try to make me the “black sheep” rather than the truly head of the black herd,” said Ahmetaj. /argumentum.al
