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Court to Rule on Separation of Albania Blast Case
Tirana | 22 May 2009 | Albania`s Supreme Court will rule on Friday on whether to separate defendants in a case arising from a deadly explosion at an ammunition depot on March 15, 2008.
Allegations of corruption and abuse of power have reached the country’s highest political echelons in the court case stemming from a huge explosion in the village of Gerdec, that killed 26 people, injured more than 300 and left over 3,000 homeless.
Judges will decide today whether to assign proceedings for defendants without immunity to a lower court. Sources inside the prosecution have told Balkan Insight that a decision to divide the defendants would further weaken a case already threatened by an earlier decision of the court.
Prosecutors had earlier sought the dismissal of three judges from the case due to their close ties with several defends and their lawyers. However these requests were rejected.
This rejection makes an appeal to the International Court for Human Rights against the eventual first-instance judgment likely, on the basis of conflict of interest.
As in an earlier case related to the Albania-Kosovo highway, the Supreme Court did not consider a series of clear legal precedents set by the constitutional court.
“They did not even read our appeal and took a decision in two minutes,” one of the prosecutors close to the case told Balkan Insight.
General Prosecutor Ina Rama filed the case with the Supreme Court in March, indicting 30 people for their actions in relation to the explosion, among them former senior officials of the Defence Ministry, with charges ranging from abuse of power to murder.
The indicted include former Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu, who is charged with abuse of power and breaking tender procedures.
Aside from Mediu, the indicted also include former Chief-Staff Luan Hoxha, General Shpetim Spahiu, and General Zija Bahja. All have denied any wrongdoing. If convicted they face up to seven years in prison.
Although the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha has promised a fair trial, it has attacked Prosecutor Rama almost daily for bringing charges against Mediu, who is also the head of Republican Party and a close ally of the prime minister in the centre-right ruling coalition.
Prosecutors have also filed murder charges against Mihal Delijorgji, the owner of the Alba-Demil company that managed the demolition work at the blast site, its administrator, Dritan Minxholi, and Ylli Pinari, the former head of Albania`s arms export agency MEICO, which was in charge of supervising the demolition work at the site. Sokol Ngjeci, a MEICO supervisor for the demolition site, has also been charged with murder.
If found guilty, the four face between 20 years and life in prison.
Estimates published by the Albanian government say the explosion caused more than 20 million euros in damages to the surrounding area. According to the emergency services, 400 houses were totally destroyed, 188 were severely damaged, 200 sustained major damage and 1,600 others were slightly damaged.
The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base, a central collection point for the arsenal amassed by the communist-era dictatorship of Enver Hoxha.
Albania has been trying for years to dismantle the obsolete arsenal, which was one of the conditions for the country`s successful entry into NATO.
Source: Balkaninsight
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