Editor’s take
TIRANA, September 12 – Like never before during his 5-year mandate as top prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Prosecution, SPAK, Arben Kraja, has thrown the bomb on the Albanian political scene.
“SPAK has opened investigations into ministers and deputies related to the issues of incinerators,” Kraja said in an interview with state-run RTSH on Monday. Kraja’s mandate ends in December this year, and generally speaking he has kept a low profile with a performance blasted both by Socialist governors and opposition.
But he has always had the strong support of the US Ambassador, Yuri Kim.
“We have 20 teams with the EU, including France, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, which are skeptical of the justice bodies in our country,” confessed Kraja.
According to him, organized crime is very sophisticated and Albanians are involved in crime in its country of origin and this makes cooperation with international partners necessary. “Processes in this field take time, 3 or four years,” he said. Speaking of corruption, he said the investigation of high officials is a challenge in itself.
“We have had cases of investigations or punishments by the vetting for corruption. We have had investigations and punishments for high-ranking officials in public procurement and the Central Directorate of Public Procurement has been found guilty,” he said.
“We are also investigating at the level of ministers and deputies, such as that of incinerators. We have cases of Gërdec that have been reopened,” said Kraja who, as a diplomat said on condition of anonymity, seems to have taken ‘advises’ to speak out on certain cases which have since long been in the archives of SPAK.
Like the question of the opening of the files of former ‘Sigurimi’ (communist state security), which is high on the political agenda of ruling Socialists, the revelations of SPAK’s outgoing top prosecutor seem to be threatening signals… A common practice in a corrupt country where those who are in power are invincible the more so when they have the support of the US.strategic partner.
/Argumentum.al
