Gerdec families want re-trial for ex-minister

TIRANA, Nov 9 – A group of women of the families in Gerdec who have suffered deaths from last year’s blast took flowers and pieces of shells to the prosecutor general’s office Monday.
A blast in Gerdec March 15, 2008 at the ammunition disposal factory killed 26, injured about 300 and damaged or destroyed thousands of houses and other buildings.
Twenty-eight officials of the defense ministry and army, including owner and manager of the private company, are on trial accused of mass murder and abuse of post.
They do not include Fatmir Mediu, then defense minister and now environment minister. He was stripped of his immunity last year and also accused of abuse of post but the Supreme Court decided they could not keep him accused in trial after he was re-elected in parliament in the June 28 election and then also included at the governing cabinet.
Mothers, wives and sisters of the dead in Gerdec have re-sent a request to Prosecutor General Ina Rama asking her resume charges and prosecution against Mediu.
They went Monday to ask about their request and stayed for hours there trying to give flowers to Rama and also shells to remind her of their deaths.
“These are flowers my son was collecting the day he died in Gerdec. I will give them in a sign of respect to Ina Rama. These are shells which I have at home and see every day. I will take them to the prosecutor general as a symbol so that she sits down and meditates,” said Zamira Durda who lost her six-year old son in the blast.
A prosecutor told them their indictment was registered and investigation had already started.