(6 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tirana, Albania – 06 January 2025
1. Various of the entrance to the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK.
2. Various of former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha raising the victory sign to his supporters gathered at SPAK entrance
3. Various of Berisha entering the prosecutor’s office building to report
4. Berisha seen behind the door screen
5. Various of Berisha leaving the building
6. SOUNDBITE (Albanian) Sali Berisha, leader of the conservative opposition Democratic Party:
“On the contrary, such a thing will increase ballots for me. And that was proved. Such was the stand from the (philanthropist George) Soros people to Donald Trump but the American nation gave its verdict.”
7. Line of police officers protecting prosecutor’s building
8. Various of opposition supporters holding placards reading (English) “High Court, Low Standards,” “Stop Manipulated Justice,” a distorted use of SPAK into “SPAK you,” and in (Albanian) “Hey (prosecutor general Altin) Dumani, what are you sharing with (Prime Minister Edi) Rama?”
9. Wide of protesters listening to their leader speaking
10. Berisha waves to supporters from vehicle
11. Opposition supporters ending their protest
STORYLINE:
A large crowd turned up to support former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha as he reported to the prosecutor’s office in Tirana on Monday for a corruption charge in connection with a property deal.
The crowds protested against what they said was a politically motivated case.
Berisha, leader of the conservative Democratic Party and also a lawmaker, said the charge would serve to "increase ballots" for him at the forthcoming election in May.
He showed a victory sign to his supporters who shouted his name and chanted “Down with the dictatorship."
A line of police officers guarded the prosecutor’s office building and there were no reports of violence.
Berisha, 80, was released in November from an 11-month house arrest, imposed after he violated a court order to report to the prosecutor’s office.
This time Berisha said he had reported to the prosecutor’s office while his case awaits consideration at Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights.
Under the court’s terms he is required to report twice a month.
In October 2023, prosecutors publicly put him under investigation for allegedly abusing his post to help his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, privatize public land to build 17 apartment buildings in the capital, Tirana.
In September last year Berisha was formally charged with corruption, which he has described as political repression ordered by Prime Minister Edi Rama of the governing left-wing Socialist Party.
Berisha served as Albania’s prime minister from 2005-2013, and as president from 1992-1997.
He was re-elected as a lawmaker for the Democratic Party in the 2021 parliamentary election.
The United States government in May 2021 and the United Kingdom in July 2022 barred Berisha and close family members from entering their countries because of his alleged involvement in corruption.
The opposition accuses the government of corruption and wants it to be replaced by a technocratic caretaker Cabinet before the 2025 parliamentary election.
AP Video by Erion Xhabafti
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