TIRANA, Dec. 30, 2023 – Sali Berisha, Albania’s former prime minister and leader of the country’s largest opposition group, has been placed under police-supervised house arrest and ordered to stop communicating with anyone outside his household through a ruling of the Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime.
The ruling comes as part of an investigation in connection to the privatization of the grounds of a state-owned sports club 15 years ago, at a time when Berisha was prime minister. The Special Prosecution against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) sought and won authorization from the parliament to enhance security measures against 79-year-old Berisha after he refused to comply with the initial mandatory appearance measure, which Berisha said he deemed unconstitutional.
Berisha responded to the ruling in a statement on social media, saying the court had made a political decision under the orders of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“This politically-motivated arrest measure, a testament to Edi Rama’s blind political vengeance, not only reflects his inherited hatred towards his opponent but, above all, reveals the fear, the terror that, dear friends, we have instilled in him, both domestically and in the world of his criminal deeds, with our irreversible battle,” Berisha noted.
Asked at a year-end press conference to comment on Berisha’s arrest, Rama refused to talk about the issue directly though he did refer to the fact that it was his Socialist Party’s MPs that had sent the related file to court.
“Parties win elections to move the country forward, and parties are not militant organizations that function to eliminate opponents, one way or another. I don’t see this as a SP victory in any way,” Rama said.
-Berisha’s lawyers say they will appeal-
Berisha’s legal team announced their intention to appeal the decision within the legal timeframe. They argue that communication restrictions for a member of parliament are illegitimate as they should have only been enacted with parliamentary authorization.
Berisha is under investigation for alleged misuse of his position as prime minister to enact legislative changes and exert influence over institutions under his control, favoring his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, one of the beneficiaries of the privatization of the former Partizani Sports Club. The legal case revolves around a change to the Law on Sports proposed by Berisha’s government in 2008, which allowed the privatization of sports facilities by families expropriated by the Communist regime. Prosecutors claim that Berisha and Malltezi received kickbacks worth 5.4 million euros from the deal. Malltezi himself is also under house arrest after spending some time in pretrial detention.
Berisha’s lawyers and his supporters say there are no criminal charges against him and no proof that he did anything wrong and that the whole ordeal is political.
Judge Irena Gjoka, the head of the special court, issued the ruling at prosecutors request after several delays. An earlier request by Berisha’s lawyers that she recuse herself due to conflict of interest was denied. His lawyers argued Berisha had fired her “for incompetence” in the 1990s when he was the country’s president.
-Political repercussions-
It’s unclear how the decision of the court will affect an already divided and weakened opposition in Albania. But they are likely to deal another blow to it after it had consolidated its presence in parliament, ironing over some of its internal divisions.
The future of Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party isn’t necessarily solely tied to Berisha, experts argue, but with his majority support within the party voter base, the charges could undermine the establishment and sustainment of a credible opposition, a cornerstone of pluralism in Albania.
Ilir Meta, a former Albanian president, prime minister and leader of another opposition party, said the aim was to destroy Albania’s opposition.
“Today’s decision … is an extreme act of political persecution of Prof. Dr. Sali Berisha and the direct work of Edi Rama for the elimination of the opposition,” Meta said in a statement. “The unprecedented isolation of the opposition leader is an alarm bell for the freedoms and rights of every citizen, for the very existence of the rule of law, as well as for political pluralism, which is today more threatened than ever before.”
For Berisha and his supporters, his current legal situation represents a clear case of political persecution that comes after Berisha assumed control of the majority faction within the opposition Democratic Party, commonly known as the DP Re-Establishment. That marked his return to active politics after an eight-year semi-retirement period.
“There can be no regime with an independent judiciary. But in Albania today there is a regime because justice has turned into a political weapon,” said Oerd Bylykbashi, a DP MP. “Today’s decision shows that the justice system is deeply politicized and must be reformed from the beginning, so that it is not only fair, uncorrupted, uncaught and impartial, but must also be seen and felt by all people as such.”
Berisha had earlier called for massive protests and “civil disobedience” against the government, and his supporters say protests will take place in January, though recent opposition protests have failed to attract large numbers of supporters.
-Further blow to weakened opposition-
In addition to the Berisha ruling, in a move that further weakens the opposition, Albanian courts have refused to acknowledge Berisha’s leadership of DP, officially granting party rights to a DP faction with minority support and only a small segment of the DP parliamentary group.
The Democratic Party has endured internal strife for years, particularly following its defeat in the April 25, 2021 general elections – which it lost for an unprecedented third consecutive time. The defeat set the stage for Prime Minister Rama’s Socialist Party to assert dominance in Albanian politics.
Following the elections, the U.S. State Department publicly implicated Berisha, who had been out of public office since 2013, in “high-level corruption,” banning him and his family from entering the United States, a move that led to Rama refusing to communicate with Berisha and his supporters, including denying DP the constitutional rights to create parliamentary investigative commissions, critics argue.
Berisha vehemently contests the U.S. decision, asserting that it is unjust and lacks factual basis and is a product of political lobbying by Rama.
SPAK has been conducting several investigations that have seen several current and former high level officials on both sides of the political spectrum arrested, but Berisha, who is a perennial center-right leader in Albania, is the highest ever official to have been detained by special prosecutors. At nearly 80 years old, Berisha’s age prevents prosecutors from seeking pretrial detention, getting them to seek and win house arrest instead.
