January 3 (SeeNews) - Albania’s specialized anti-corruption court has decided to put former prime minister Sali Berisha under house arrest for allegedly assisting his son-in-law to unlawfully obtain 673 million leks ($7.1 million/6.5 million euros) in a 2008 privatisation deal, documents published by local media revealed.
In addition, the court has prohibited any form of communication with individuals outside of Berisha's immediate family, according to a court decision published by local news provider Shqiptarja last weekend.
In a statement following the decision, Berisha denied any wrongdoing and urged people to join him to protest against what he considered a political vengeance by his political opponent, current prime minister and Socialist leader Edi Rama. Videos posted on Berisha's Facebook account show supporters gathered near his apartment in Tirana over the New Year’s Eve.
Ervin Salianji, a spokesperson for the main opposition Democratic Party (PD) co-founded by Sali Berisha, stated that the court decision is disproportionate and was issued in violation of constitutional rights.
In December, Albania's legislature voted to strip Berisha of parliamentary immunity as an independent member of parliament, granting a request by the country's anti-corruption body, SPAK. Evidence collected by SPAK during the investigation suggested that while serving as prime minister, Berisha had made regulatory changes to facilitate the privatisation of a sporting club which his son-in-law then turned into a residential complex, obtaining profits without actually investing in the project, the anti-graft body said in October.
Sali Berisha served as the first non-communist president of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and then as prime minister from 2005 to 2013. He led the Democratic Party from 1997 until his resignation in 2013. Berisha returned to PD and was elected member of parliament from PD in the 2021 general election, before being expelled from the party's parliamentary group over disagreement with then PD leader Lulzim Basha.
(1 euro = 103.265 Albanian leks)