Supreme Court refuses to review Gerdec case

TIRANA, July 29 – Albania’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for a new trial the case of the massive explosion at the munitions disassembling plant in Gerdec in March 2008, which killed 26 people and injured more than 300, Albanian media said.
The court did not agree to reconsider the case at all, refusing to hear arguments on it. Lawyers supporting the victims’ families expressed anger at the court’s move.
The explosion at Gerdec near Tirana in March 2008 killed 26 people, wounded 300 others, destroyed or damaged 5,500 houses and caused the temporary closure of the Albanian capital’s airport as unexploded ordnance landed near it.
Investigators said it was started by a lit cigarette, in the factory where some 1,400 tons of explosives, mostly obsolete artillery shells, were stored for disposal.
The first-instance Tirana court had sentenced 29 persons, either of the private company or the Defense Ministry involved in the case, but earlier this year, in February the Appeals Court reduced the sentences for most of them and the main persons responsible have already been let free. They include factory owner Mihal Delijorgji and manager Dritan Minxolli.
Then-Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu had also been charged with breach of duty over the accident after Parliament agreed to lift his immunity from prosecution. But the charges were dropped when he was subsequently re-elected to Parliament, as Albanian law doesn’t allow a lawmaker’s immunity to be lifted twice for the same alleged offense.
Mediu is currently the environment minister and was reelected in parliament in the most recent election.
Gerdec will remain one top issue to be discussed with the new government that is to come to power in September, that of the leftist Socialist-led coalition that won the June 23 national elections. Prime Minister-elect Edi Rama has pledged that the justice should come for Gerdec victims too.