Supreme Court drops corruption case against Basha

TIRANA, April 12 – Albania’s Supreme Court dismissed a corruption case against Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha, saying that prosecutors missed a deadline to complete their investigation of Basha, who is accused of abuse of office in connection with a highway construction project.
Prosecutors claimed Basha improperly favored a U.S.-Turkish company when awarding the 554 million dollar contract in 2006 while he was transport minister. They said his behavior had cost 232 million Euros of damages to the public budget.
The highway will link northern Albania to neighboring Kosovo and is scheduled for completion later this year.
Criminal cases against senior public officials in Albania are automatically referred to the Supreme Court.
Basha was charged with abuse of power and breaking tender rules relating to the massive construction project.
The charges related to the time when Basha served as Albania’s Minister of Transportation and Public Works from 2005 to 2007.
But the court on Friday dismissed the charges over a series of technicalities, arguing that Basha had not been indicted properly last November, while prosecutors claimed that the process was lawful.
“This is the end of a political process and the end of plot against the highway,” said Basha to reporters outside the courthouse.
The 61-km Rreshen-Kalimash section of the Albania to Kosovo highway is costing Albania 719 million Euros from the 418 million that it started with.
However, because the highway is not yet finished, its final cost could rise further. The Rreshen-Kalimash section is only a part of the 170-km highway. Albania’s government has declined to give a clear estimate of the final costs of the road.
The prosecution says irregularities in the tender have so far cost Albanian taxpayers some 232 million Euros, an estimate based on the average price of construction material and labor costs in comparison with what Albania is paying to build the road.
The highway, which will link the port of Durres to Kosovo and includes a 6km-long tunnel, is the country’s biggest public works project in decades.
Prosecutor General Ina Rama probed alleged irregularities in the tender for the construction of the highway won by the American-Turkish consortium, Bechtel-Enka, for more than 17 months.
The verdict has raised many questions among lawyers. Some say prosecutors are still entitled to reopen the case as the court did not acquit Basha of his charge. While others oppose that. It may very likely turn to the Constitutional Court to decide who is right and how the legislation may be interpreted.
That is a clear precedence in the country’s jurisdiction.