Defense Ministry sues opposition MP

TIRANA, Sep. 04 – Albania’s Defense Ministry has filed criminal prosecution against opposition Socialist Party lawmaker Erion Brace for publicizing classified documents in weapons sale contracts.
Brace has asked for Minister Arben Imami’s resignation accusing him of some weapons contracts sale through a Montenegrin company owned by a Serb illicit arms trader blacklisted from the United Nations, including mortar shells sold to Yemen in early 2011.
The ministry on Thursday denies any involvement, saying it has “no personal or institutional ties with any of the persons mentioned.” The ministry denies using illicit arms dealers, saying all intermediaries have been vetted by international partners.
Albania is a NATO member since 2009.
Following approval last month of a constitutional amendment that greatly limits the immunity from prosecution that lawmakers and senior officials enjoyed, the opposition Socialists also have sued another government minister of illegally spending advertising money for media outlets supporting the executive.
The Socialists are embarked in an intensive campaign to show how the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha has abused with the public money. That is only 8-9 months ahead of the parliamentary elections in June next year.
It started first to show how different ministries had abused with the advertising money giving them primarily to a private company owned by a media group owner very close to the government. They said that the ministries had abused with some 14 million USD basically distributing them only to three media outlets, but most of them to just one.
At the end they concluded suing Transport Minister Sokol Olldashi for spending up to half a million dollars to the governing Democratic Party newspapers and another half for two other ones close to the government.
The minister has strongly turned down any speculation of that kind saying they have regularly distributed the advertising money. Moreover he continues to return the charges, saying that Rama himself has also abused with the Tirana city hall public money when he ran that institution, sending the advertising money only to the media outlets very close to him.
The culmination of such a spade of tit-for-tat accusations was with opposition Socialist lawmaker Erion brace. For a week now he has come out almost daily showing documents of allegedly illicit arms sale from the defense ministry. He has always accused the minister, Arben Imami of illegal contracts. He started to mention the buying of tapping electronic devices just ahead of the opposition protest in early 2011, to follow with the weapons for snipers of the army secret intelligence police. But he then passed on to more serious accusation of not only non-transparent arms deals but also through a Serb illicit arms trader.
Brace showed continues documentation of arms sale through Montenegrin companies. He said that the main trader was Slobodan Tesic who has been blacklisted from the United Nations for his illicit arms deal with Liberia in Africa. He continued to mention, in harsh words, how the ministry had sold mortar shells and ammunition to Yemen in late 2010 and early 2011 when the Arab spring started all around that area.
Brace said that the minister had also made favorable prices to the Serb arms dealer, compared to other sales.
The defense ministry denied all the charges, saying they had made all the transactions very illegally and in cooperation with the secret intelligence police and the international partners. They said they did not know the names mentioned by Brace and that he would be penally accountable for such claims. The ministry in fact started the counter-accusations saying that they were getting rid of
At this moment it was expected that Brace would sue the minister, as they had done with Olldashi. But the defense ministry was quicker and filed the criminal prosecution now that the law lets prosecutors free to start such procedures against senior officials.
But there are also voices, behind the curtains, that the ministry is more interested to learn who have been the sources that have supplied such documents to the opposition. People mention different names but also options that it could be an effort to sideline some senior officials in the list, that is internal fight amongst the governing Democrats.
The electoral campaign has started, in total wings from the opposition.
The opposition Socialist party leader Edi Rama comes out often to support such claims made from his lawmakers. On Wednesday he also loudly criticized Olldashi for his efforts to fund his party’s newspaper. The same day he got the response from Olldashi’s spokeswoman mentioning hundreds of millions of leks he had allegedly illegally spent for his media newspapers and TV stations supporting him.
The same day the squabbling turned back at the parliamentary legal commission where the candidates for the Central Election Commission and its leader were introducing themselves.
The exchange of verbal words has been really confusing to a common person. After they agreed a day earlier to listen to all the candidates, the next day they said they could not agree on the proceeding ways. Both sides claim what has been achieved so far is their path. And that is good.
But in fact they are slowing their pace and next week the people will listen to the annual progress report from Brussels on how Albania has been doing and whether it will be a candidate for the European Union membership or not.
Both sides accuse each other for hampering such a process at a time when Albania and Albanians have in large numbers said, based on different polls, they are much in favor of such a membership.
The international community has made it clear to Tirana that genuine dialogue involving all actors is essential for progress on Albania’s reform agenda. That was again mentioned last weekend by Lucinda Creighton, Irish Minister for European Affairs representing the OSCE Chair-in-Office, during her official visit to Albania.