3 on trial for Gerdec blast move to house arrest

TIRANA, Feb. 7 – The Tirana district court on Monday decided to release from detention Mihal Delijorgji, Ylli Pinari and Sokol Ngjeci and sent them to house arrest after the same precedent was set from the Supreme Court last week releasing Dritan Minxolli.
They were the four main suspects in the trial of the Gerdec blast at the ammunition disposal private factory which in March 2008 killed 26 persons, injured 300 others and damaged or destroyed some 5,000 of houses and other buildings.
They were let free after their detention time had expired, after a good tactic used by their lawyers delaying the trial sessions with their frequent absence.
Minxolli was the manager of the private AlbDemil company operating there, whose boss was Delijorgji. Ylli Pinari was head of the Meico public company operating at the Defense Ministry and Ngjeci also at the same ministry.
First it was also former defense minister Fatmir Mediu, who joined 28 ministry, army and other officials charged over the blasts. Later Mediu was released from the charges after he renewed his immunity after the 2009 elections.
Family members of the dead and injured have said they will do their utmost going up to the international courts to secure their punishment.
Albania, a former communist country, joined NATO two years ago, and had about 90,000 tons of excess ammunition stored in old army depots at the time of explosion.
The country’s authorities are still trying to recover excess ammunition, many of them robbed form army depots during the 1997 revolt, pledge to get rid of them by 2014.
As expected both main political parties came out to blame each other for the failure of the trial. The opposition Socialist directly blamed Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his son for the tragedy, while the governing Democrats said that was a tactic used by pro-Socialist persons at the trial to release Delijorgji which they said had close links to Socialist leader Edi Rama.