Meta to stand trial, appeal rejected

TIRANA, July 12 – Former deputy prime minister Ilir Meta will be tried for corruption charges at the Albanian Supreme Court.
On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Meta’s lawyers to dismiss the cases on the grounds that the probe against the former deputy prime minister had started while he still enjoyed political immunity from prosecution.
He will be on trial later this month.
Meta is the leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration, a small leftist party that has become one of the allies of the governing center-right Democratic party and was decisive in holding the proper numbers at the parliament. It holds three key ministries at the cabinet and four parliamentary seats.
Meta resigned in January after the broadcast of a secretly filmed video in which he was seen discussing corrupt deals with another minister.
Meta has denied wrongdoing and on Tuesday harshly spoke against the general prosecutor’s office, calling it “an extremist cell that was working to discredit him and his party” and compared it to the former communist intelligence secret police Sigurimi.
He also said that he would press the parliament for a deep reform of the prosecutor’s office.
Transcripts of the video showed Meta asking the former economy minister, Dritan Prifti, to intervene in a hydropower plant concession tender in return for a bribe.
Meta also asked Prifti to hire activists of his own party.
Meta says the video was heavily edited and that his words were taken out of context.
Meta’s corruption case is the first high-profile indictment of a government minister, as several other cases have been dismissed on procedural grounds under highly questionable verdicts.