The Albanian Court against Corruption and Organized Crime has approved the request of the Special Prosecutor's Office to place former centre-right Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the main opposition figure, under house arrest, under investigation for alleged corruption.
In October the Special Court had ordered Berisha to appear twice a month before the judicial police and not to leave the country, but three times in a row the former prime minister ignored the order. According to the Special Prosecutor's Office, in 2009 when he was head of the government, in the procedures for the privatization of a sports complex in Tirana, Berisha favored his son-in-law Jamarber Malltezi, one of the owners of the land on which the complex on which they later arose numerous palaces.
The former prime minister - who was also president of Albania in the 1990s - declared that the Court's decision "is in violation of the Constitution" , since, as a member of parliament, the Prosecutor's Office should have asked for 'authorization . Berisha denied the accusations, claiming that everything was a political setup "orchestrated" by the current socialist prime minister Edi Rama.
If he violates house arrest he risks ending up in prison. An "extralegal" measure, declared his defender Genc Gjokutaj, also defining as "senseless" the ban on Berisha from having communications with the outside world, except with relatives.
(Unioneonline/D)
