Americans fail to appear in Gerdec case

TIRANA, Sep. 14 – Five U.S. citizens, the administrator and four managers of SAC, the company that disposed ammunition in Gerdec, have failed to appear in an Albanian court to give their testimony at the trial that has started in Tirana.
Twenty-eight persons, including the owner and manager of the private AlbDemil company, as well as Defense Ministry civilian and military officials are accused with abuse of post that led to deaths and could face life imprisonment if convicted.
The accused also include former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu, whose charges were dropped after he was reelected as lawmaker and included in the new cabinet as environment minister.
Twenty-six persons died, 300 were injured and thousands of houses and other buildings were destroyed or damaged from the explosion in March two years ago at a private disposal factory in Gerdec, only 15 kilometers from Tirana.
The court decided to send another request to the U.S. authorities to ask their five citizens to testify in the process.