Albania High Court Drops Charges Against Minister
Tirana | 01 March 2010 |
The charges, which relate to Mediu’s role as defence minister in the previous government headed by Prime Minister Sali Berisha, were brought by two of the victims wounded by the blast, which ripped through the makeshift depot in the village of Gerdec, only ten kilometres outside Tirana.
The two young victims accused the minister of being responsible for the wounds they suffered due to the explosion and sought a civil trial. Their case rested largely on the arguments made against Mediu in the criminal case, namely accusations of abuse of power for his decision to grant the demolition contract to a company whose workers were allegedly unqualified and which allegedly performed the demolition in an unsafe manner.
The court dismissed the civil lawsuits, ruling that there was not sufficient evidence that Mediu was guilty of the crimes he was accused of committing.
On September 15, 2009, the Supreme Court suspended the criminal case against Mediu just hours after he was sworn in as minister in the new government.
The judicial panel accepted his lawyers' request that the case be suspended. Mediu's defence team argued that their client again enjoyed parliamentary immunity after having secured a seat in parliament in the June 28, 2009 parliamentary elections as leader of the Republican Party.
Mediu’s party won only one seat in parliament, securing little more than one per cent of the popular vote.
The prosecutor contested the request but the Supreme Court panel, headed by Justice Besnik Ymeri, ruled in favour of Mediu.
General Prosecutor Ina Rama filed the blast case at the Supreme Court in March 2009, indicting 29 people for their alleged involvement in the explosion, among them former senior officials of the defence ministry. The charges range from abuse of power to murder.
The indictees include former army chief of 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.
In May, the Supreme Court decided to assign cases involving defendants who do not enjoy parliamentary immunity to a lower court. The Supreme Court was thus dealing solely with Mediu's case.
Although Berisha's government had promised a fair trial, it repeatedly attacked Rama for bringing charges against Mediu, a close ally of the premier.
Prosecutors have filed murder charges against Mihal Delijorgji, the owner of the Alba-Demil company that managed the demolition work at the blast site. Charges have also been filed against site 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 on site. Sokol Ngjeci, a MEICO supervisor at the demolition facility, has also been charged with murder. They have all denied the charges.
If found guilty, the four face 20 years to life in prison.
Estimates published by the Albanian government say the explosion caused more than €20 million in damage 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 had been trying for years to dismantle the obsolete arsenal, which was one of the conditions for the country’s successful entry into NATO.
