TIRANA, April 12 – The ongoing war of words between US Ambassador Donald Lu and former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla has taken a new impetus after Lalla wrote in a letter to the US Congress alleging that Lu had informally asked him to arrest Ilir Meta as “a corrupt politician” back in 2016.
Lu told local media the allegation was a lie, adding Llalla was a corrupt former official.
Meta was speaker of parliament in 2016 and currently serves as Albania’s president.
In the sixth page of a 18-page-long letter, Llalla wrote that “in a manner that was undiplomatic and opposed Vienna Convention principles, Ambassador Lu suggested I should arrest the head of the parliament, and at the same time chief of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Ilir Meta.”
According to Llalla’s letter, which was sent to US Congress to convey information on George Soros influences in the country and was made public in the Congress’ webpage, Lu’s informally requested Meta’s arrest in Llalla’s office, in the context of the country’s EU aspirations.
“His arrest would help, according to the ambassador’s point of view, the acceleration of the country’s European Union integration,” Llalla writes.
Llalla’s letter added that he had to interrupt the meeting due to the unprofessional nature of the ambassador’s request, after telling him that an individual’s arrest can only be made based on evidence, and not speculations.
Llalla did not make the name of the politician whose arrest Lu sought public at the time, but publicly said the US Embassy’s “attacks” toward his figure as GP stemmed from this refusal.
Lu reacted to Llalla’s claims saying the former GP is lying in a statement for a local TV broadcaster.
“Former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla is a corrupt public official who is under active investigation for money laundering and unexplainable massive wealth. It is not a surprise he keeps opposing the justice reform now that he risks imprisonment from his corruption,” Lu told local media.
According to Lu, Llalla’s claim that the ambassador asked him to fire someone four months after his first arrival to Tirana is an absurd lie that offends both the country’s current President Ilir Meta and the entirety of the Albanian people.
Local media reported Lu’s request was allegedly made during July 2016, according to a statement made by Meta at the time seemingly indirectly responding to Lu.
“What kind of rhetoric is this: let’s meet but … I’ll put you to jail. There is no compromise with prison. Let me be investigated to the end,” Meta said in 2016.
Lu and Llalla have verbally clashed several times while Llalla was the country’s GP and even after his post went to temporary GP Arta Marku.
After his mandate ended, Llalla withdrew from the vetting of the judiciary, to which Lu responded by saying that he cannot withdraw from the judiciary reform and from the penal charges in case his figure is deemed guilty of corruption.
Llalla and his family were also banned from entering the US ever again by the US State Department in a public message, marking the first time the United States had acted in that manner with a foreign official.
