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The first trial by the reformed judiciary against a former senior official ends: the former Minister of Interior, Saimir Tahiri, was sentenced on Friday (04.02) by the GJAKK to prison on charges of abuse of office.
Following the ruling by the Special Court of Appeals for Corruption and Organized Crime (GJAKK), the prosecution signed an arrest warrant. Former Minister of Interior Saimir Tahiri came out of the courtroom in handcuffs and was taken to the detention facility of Prison 313, a regular security prison located in Tirana.
Tahiri: I am morally calm, I have not broken the law
Former Minister of Interior Tahiri and his lawyer Maks Haxhia reacted to the prison decision: “It is simply injustice. I am morally calm. “I have not violated the law, I have done my duty as best I can”, the former Minister of Interior emphasized after giving the decision, in a Facebook post.
His lawyer, Haxhia, to whom the trial panel did not give the right to speak during the hearing, where the decision was made, stated, after sending Tahiri to the detention facilities that they would oppose the decision in the High Court, “we will appeal “We are waiting for the clarification of the reasoned decision,” he stressed.
The law stipulates that recourse to the High Court is made within 45 days starting from the day of the decision.
US: No one is above the law
The US Ambassador to Tirana, Yuri Kim, welcomed the decision of justice through a post on Twitter. “We call on the judiciary to continue to demonstrate that no one – regardless of party, position or wealth – is above the law. No more impunity. ”
Basha: The accusations of PD against Tahiri are true
Lulzim Basha, chairman of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition force in Albania, described the GJAKK decision as evidence “of the veracity of the accusations of the Democratic Party regarding the involvement of former Interior Minister Tahiri in international narcotics trafficking.”
Chronicle of the first trial against a senior official
In fact, both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeals dropped the prosecution’s accusations against former Minister Tahiri for involvement in drug trafficking. Only the charge of abuse of office remained against him.
This accusation is made against the minister, who was considered the most successful in the first government led by Prime Minister Edi Rama in the years 2013-2017, his biggest trophy was the destruction of the castle of cultivation and drug trafficking in Albania, the village of Lazarat, which for for more than a decade he had been preoccupied with the cannabis sativa business, left completely out of the control of the police and the rule of law. But in March 2017, before the end of the governing mandate Rama 1, Tahiri along with several other ministers were fired by the Prime Minister, who justified the dismissals in the context of the opposition’s request for a technical government, on the eve of the 2017 parliamentary elections. In those elections Saimir Tahiri was elected deputy of the Socialist Party but not part of the ruling cabinet Rama 2.
In the fall of 2017, six months after the victory of the second governing term led by Rama, accusations of drug trafficking against Tahiri erupted. The then bodies of Justice in Albania were informed by the Prosecution of Catania (Italy) that in its interceptions of conversations of drug traffickers, members of an Albanian criminal organization operating in Italy, the name of the former minister was mentioned. Tahiri. In Tirana, the Serious Crimes Prosecution requested his arrest.
The Socialist majority rejected the request due to lack of evidence. Six months later, in the spring of 2018, Tahiri resigned from the mandate of deputy, paving the way for investigations. After seven months of investigation, the Serious Crimes Prosecution requested the security measure with arrest in prison. But the Serious Crimes Court decided to investigate under house arrest. Following the investigation, the Prosecution requested a 12-year prison sentence. But in September 2019 this court found Tahiri not guilty of drug trafficking and guilty of abuse of office. The sentence was 5 years in prison turned into probation / voluntary work for “failing to take measures that would avoid cannabis in Albania and the involvement of police officers in it.”
Former Minister Tahiri called the above decision “unexpected, ridiculous, absurd”. According to him he was innocent. Opposition leader Basha called the decision “shameful, a decision that shows that justice has been taken hostage by Prime Minister Rama.”
Former Minister Tahiri challenged the decision in the GjAKK and demanded innocence. He stated that “his battle to uncover the truth had just begun.” After 5 years, the trial ended on Friday (04.02) with the same sentence, with the same accusation but now imprisoned, not free to serve the sentence with probation.
It will now be the Supreme Court that will have to judge the truth that former Interior Minister Tahiri, now a prisoner, and his lawyer will present to this court. The public is waiting to bring to justice another former minister, Lefter Koka, former Minister of Environment from the SMI party, with whom Rama co-governed in his first government in 2013-2017. Former Minister Koka is accused by SPAK of abuse of office, passive corruption, money laundering and is currently in custody./DW
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