TIRANA, April 16 – Albanian former Prime Minister Sali Berisha said this week he believed EU Ambassador to Albania Romana Vlahutin had once asked former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla to arrest Berisha, a fact the ex premier said was confirmed to him by two different sources.
Berisha made the allegation in the context of a recent letter made public by the US Congress, in which Llalla wrote that the US Ambassador to Albania Donald Lu had asked him to arrest Ilir Meta, who is currently Albania’s president and at the time served as Speaker of Parliament and head of the Socialist Movement for Integration.
“I’ve had my own story, Ambassador Vlahutin asked Llalla to arrest me. I fully believe this because Llalla told [ex President] Nishani Mrs. Vlahutin came to his office and requested my arrest. I had learned this from other ambassadors, but hadn’t even taken it into consideration,” Berisha told a television talk show this week, adding Vlahutin has “Berisha-phobia. ”
The EU Delegation to Albania issued a statement to local media saying Berisha’s claim is “unfounded fiction.”
“The European Union does not comment on fiction, which is completely unfounded,” a spokesperson for the delegation said.
Following the EU’s reaction, Berisha posted what he called a “clarification” in social media saying he had made his allegations concerning Vlahutin — first brought to his attention by a EU member state ambassador — public since 2015 and that no one had insofar refuted them.
He added that, even though he had believed the story, he had ignored the fact because Vlahutin, being Prime Minister Edi Rama’s friend, “thought she was helping the PM.”
Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party, to which Berisha belongs, has for years accused Vlahutin of being biased and a supporter of the ruling Socialist Party.
“Approximately a year later, President Bujar Nishani was officially informed by GP Adriatik Llalla on the request made in his office by Mrs. Vlahutin concerning the arrest of Sali Berisha,” Berisha wrote on social media.
According to Berisha, Vlahutin’s request to clarify the situation was ignored by him because “it is impossible to find the truth in a conversation between two people.”
Berisha also wrote about an allegation concerning Vlahutin’s purchase of a coastal residence priced three times more than the ceiling prices of the area is not related to the above-mentioned issue, but rather based on his conviction that dubious affairs should be investigated in all occasions.
Berisha’s declarations come just a few days days before the EU’s executive branch was to issue its recommendation on opening accession negotiations with Albania and after the public debate between former GP Llalla and Lu.
Llalla accused Lu of unprofessionally asking him to arrest Meta four months after he had taken up his post in a letter sent to US Congress, but his claims were refuted by Lu and PM Rama alike as being untrue.
