Kodheli said the opposition has no proof and is trying to confuse the public with ‘terrible accusations’.
TIRANA, April 16 – The Ministry of Defense has called on state prosecutors to look into charges made by the main opposition Democratic Party, which says certain structures within the country’s armed forces have been involved in drug trafficking.
Several DP officials have repeated the charges, starting with Democratic Party lawmaker Arben Imami, a former defense minister who is himself facing abuse of posts and corruption charges.
Imami said current Defense Minister Mimi Kodheli should be held accountable for what he says is drug trafficking being conducted by elements within the armed forces.
Kodheli said the opposition was making “terrible accusations” without proof and confusing the public.
“The opposition is not releasing any proof; it only keeps saying that army structures are being used for drug trafficking,” Kodheli said in parliament. “Every accuser has to show proof, but you have no evidence that the armed forces are involved in such criminal activities.”
She added that since September 2013, when the new government took office, she had found not a single shred of evidence of the charges the opposition has made.
Earlier in the week, Kodheli sent a letter to Prosecutor General Adriatik Llalla asking him to immediately launch an investigation on the alleged crime and publicly asked Llalla whether he had started the investigation and asked for a public response.
A spokesman for Llalla told the media Wednesday that the institution had not yet made a decision on the investigation.
The opposition Democrats said the government was exerting pressure on the judiciary.
The accusations came after the Socialist-led government filed charges on former senior military and ministry officials who served during the time of the Democrat-led administration.
The contents of the charges have not been made public. Previously, the Socialists had accused the Democrats of buying equipment to allegedly tap then-opposition politicians. Other charges also included getting bribes from the military personnel set to go on international peacekeeping missions.
