TIRANA, Oct 26 /ATA/ The Special Court for Corruption and Organized Crime has upheld the security measure ‘mandatory appearance’ and ban on leaving Albania for former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who is charged by SPAK with passive corruption in the affair of the former ‘Partizani’ complex privatization.
Sali Berisha is ordered not to go abroad and to appear at SPAK on the first and third Monday of every month at 10:00 a.m. before the judicial police officer Adelajda Ahmetaj. With this decision, the Court decided to uphold the security measure for the former prime minister, imposed on October 20, 2023 when it also ruled on the arrest of Jamarbër Malltezi, and the mandatory appearance for businessman Fatmir Bektashi.
Thursday’s session saw deadlocks, as the legitimate lawyers in the morning, namely Jalldiz Kastrati and Rabije Cenalia, at the start of the session at 3:00 p.m., withdrew from their defense.
For 2 hours and a half, judge Irena Gjoka, whose exclusion at the request of the former Prime Minister was not accepted, appointed another state lawyer, Valentina Todoresku, to represent him.
The latter agreed to defend the interests of Sali Berisha, breaking the 3-day deadlock.
The lawyers chosen by the former Prime Minister, after appearing in two hearings, on Wednesday walked out of the session, describing the judicial process as unlawful as long as two requests filed by them were dropped, such as the one for taking the decision on the security measure against Berisha without authorization from the Assembly to the Constitutional Court.
/sm/
