TIRANA, Oct 24 /ATA/ – Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime on Friday rejected a request by former Environment Minister Lefter Koka to be released from pre-trial detention.
Judge Erjon Bani denied Koka’s claim that his three-year detention period for the Fier incinerator case had expired. The decision can be appealed to the Special Court of Appeals for Corruption and Organized Crime within five days of its notification.
Former Environment Minister was arrested in December 2021 in connection with the Elbasan incinerator affair on charges of abuse of office, money laundering and corruption. In 2023, he was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison but was granted conditional release by the Durrës Court in July 2025.
In a separate case related to the Fier incinerator, Koka was sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2023, but the Special Court of Appeals returned the case for retrial in December 2024.
On Oct. 21, 2025, Albania’s Supreme Court ruled that the case should be reviewed by the appellate branch of the Special Court.
Koka also faces a three-year prison sentence issued in April 2025 in the Tirana incinerator case, one year less than requested by the Special Prosecution Office, though that verdict has not yet become final.
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