British media not happy with Cherie Blair’s five-star Albania trip

TIRANA TIMES

TIRANA, July 20 – The British media has not been happy with the recent trip of Tony Blair’s wife Cherie to Albania, which was funded by a local businessman the U.K. media sees as controversial.
The First Post and the Daily Mail reported Cherie’s visit was “funded by an oil tycoon charged with beating journalist.”
“Cherie Blair accepted a five-star trip to Albania as the guest of a powerful, vastly rich and hugely controversial oil tycoon. The 39-year-old multi-millionaire Rezart Taci has been accused of using his political ties to acquire Albania’s sole oil refinery and also faces charges of beating up an investigative journalist,” wrote the Post
“Cherie Blair went on a whirlwind tour of the Balkans paid for by an Albanian oil tycoon awaiting trial for allegedly beating a man unconscious,” wrote the Daily Mail.
A spokesman for Mrs. Blair has confirmed that on July 8 she was flown to Albania on a private jet owned by Taci. While in the former communist state Mrs Blair opened Taci’s recently acquired TV station, cutting a ribbon and allegedly praising its new owner’s ‘can-do’ attitude.
“Yet in Albania Mrs Blair’s host is seen as a corrupt and violent man and the former Prime Minister’s wife has been roundly condemned for associating with him,” according to the newspaper.
The Mail adds that Mrs Blair – a judge and leading human rights lawyer – neglected to mention that Taci has recently been charged over an assault in which a journalist was savagely attacked.
The Post continues to write that last year Taci was charged for his role in a savage assault on a TV journalist. Taci and two of his bodyguards allegedly attacked investigative reporter Mero Baze in a Tirana bar in November, apparently in a rage over the journalist’s accusations of tax evasion and corruption. Baze was left unconscious and the country’s US ambassador John Withers called the beating an “inexcusable assault”.
The tycoon – who is said to be worth 700 million euro in a country where the average wage is the equivalent of under 300 euro a month – denies the charges and a date for his trial is yet to be set.
Mrs. Blair’s spokesman insisted that she had been invited to Albania as the guest of Berisha’s wife, who wanted her to visit a children’s charity. Mrs Blair had not met Taci before the trip, the spokesman also claimed, and “received no fee of any description from Mr Taci”, according to the Post.
Back in Albania, however, Taci has reportedly been complaining that the money he says he spent on Mrs. Blair’s visit was not worth it. A source told the Daily Mail: “He has been complaining to his staff that he paid 200,000 euro to bring Cherie Blair here, and the only media to cover the visit was his own TV station… he is desperate to improve his image.”
Baze, the beaten journalist, has condemned Mrs Blair for supporting his alleged attacker. He told the Mail: “Here in Albania, Tony Blair is a hero because of saving Kosovo. The words of his wife are powerful and carry great weight. For her to say such nice things about Taci, like freedom of the press, it gives him so much undeserved credibility. It boosts his image, after what he did to me.”
Yet although she is famously partial to freebies, accepting lavish hospitality from a man charged with assault marks a new low, writes the Mail.