TIRANA, Nov. 11 – Two prosecutors from the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office demanded on Friday the trial of Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha, former Secretary General Arben Ristani and Ilir Dervishi, for “falsification of marks, stamps and forms.”
At the same time, prosecutors Ervin Karanxha and Gjergj Tako filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Basha on laundering products or criminal activity.
They published a document with their two signatures about these investigations, which lacked the signature of a third member of the investigation team.
The claim is still known to be still in the prosecutor’s office and has not yet been brought to court for administrative reasons.
Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha was summoned by the prosecution six months ago as a defendant to be acquitted of the charge in connection with the investigation launched into lobbying payments in the United States.
Basha has held Prime Minister Edi Rama accountable for “deciding to open investigations against him through Putin-based methods, on ridiculous allegations made by his political prosecution.”
The DP issued a statement Friday evening, stating that “the prosecution dropped the ridiculous charge fabricated in Edi Rama’s office to hit his political opponent, which remained open for two years to rattle the corrupt scandals of his government and links to organized crime. But now it has been established that there has never been any investigation in the US against the DP,” the statement reads.
Meanwhile Taulant Balla, one of the leaders of the Socialist Party, stated that the investigation against Basha should be carried out by the SPAK, the soon-to-be-established Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution. He said Basha should not easily pass the charge of money laundering and be charged only on forging documents.
“As Albanians await the rise of the SPAK, it is unacceptable for certain prosecutors to grant amnesty for such serious offenses. The court must not admit it and must take it again under investigation,” Balla wrote on social media.
The issue of lobbying payments made by the DP opened in November 2017, when the US lobbying firm ‘Muzin Capitol Partners’ supplemented with additional information its statutory statements required by the Department of Justice in the US.
According to the ‘Muzin’ company, it received three payments, in the amount of $675,000, for her work in favor of the Democratic Party in 2017.
Of these statements by the Muzin firm, only $25,000 has been accepted by Basha to have been paid by his party while it also denied links with the firm ‘Biniatta Trade LP,’ a company headquartered in Scotland but with Russian backed ties.
