Gerdec blast sparks “love of charging”

TIRANA, March 24 – The blast in Gerdec ammunition disposal factory which killed 26 people has also sparked a wave of accusation and indictment in the country.
Former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu and 27 other ministry and army officials, including private company staff, have been charged of abuse of post and some of them also of murder and may face up to life imprisonment.
These charges were not enough despite the flare-up of the political squabbling that surrounded them.
The families of the victims filed a civil law suit for compensatory damages against Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
The victims’ families say Berisha and his government has breached the constitution by not ensuring that laws and procedures for dismantling military equipment approved by the Council of Ministers were put in place ahead of the 15 March, 2008 blast. The families were seeking 20 million lek for each of the victims of the blast.
On top of this the Vora town hall indicted some families asking them to pay back compensation from the suffered damages.
At the same time the government also sued the private AlbaDemil company for the damages caused from the blast.
And surprisingly it was Mediu himself who sued Prosecutor General Ina Rama and main prosecutor in the case Sokol Stojani for making public details of the investigation. They said the publication of the file was contrary to the law and the constitution.
His lawyers also said that the prosecutor had tried to worsen the public image of the former minister through sending SMS messages to some journalists asking Mediu to a talk show last week.
The blast at the depot in the village of Gerdec, killed 26 people, injured 264 and destroyed or damaged thousands of houses and other buildings.
Estimates published by the Albanian government say the explosion caused more than 15 million Euros in damages to the surrounding area. The explosions began when workers were moving stocks of old Chinese and Soviet shells stored at the base, a central collection point for the arsenal amassed by the communist-era dictatorship of Enver Hoxha.
Albania has been trying for years to dismantle the obsolete arsenal, which was one of the conditions for the country’s successful entry into NATO.