Gerdec families convince Strasbourg to take Mediu’s case

TIRANA, Oct. 4 – The association of the families of the victims, dead and injured, in the Gerdec blast more than two years ago managed to get the go ahead from Strasbourg on suing the then-Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu. He is now environment minister.
Assisted by a law firm, the group of families had asked the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to take the case of the former minister.
The explosion at the Gerdec disposal ammunition factory in March 2008 killed 26 persons, injured 300 others and damaged thousands of houses and other objects in the area.
Mediu resigned from the post after the explosion and the prosecutor’s office started a case against him and 28 other top officials of the ministry, army and also the private company operating there.
But more than a year later Mediu was re-elected as lawmaker for his Republican Party, which he leads. Following that, the governing Democrats’ Prime Minsiter Sali Berisha re-named him in the cabinet, this time as environment minister.
That meant that the case against him ended due to immunity issues, something which did not satisfy the victims’ families, who turned to the European Court.
The European Court decided the demand from the two injured of the blast as enough proof to start an investigation on the procedure of the legal process to proceed.
Mediu is protected by parliamentary immunity and cannot be tried in Albania.
The other defendants continue their trial in Tirana.