Former Albanian President Ilir Meta spoke in a press conference today about the criminal complaint he filed against the Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents and the voices spread in the last days of his term as President about alleged collaboration with the infamous Sigurimi, the State Security, in his youth, under the communist dictatorship. The voices spread after the parliament declassified Sigurimi files from the late 1980s showing how one student with initials I.M. had revealed to Sigurimi a friend’s plans to escape from the country, which was punishable as high treason. Meta rejected the allegations immediately and said it was a fabrication on account of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

“Who kept the Authority from summoning me to give explanations? I have been vetted two times from previous commissions. The Authority is an annex of the government and Tirana’s Municipality. How can one take classified documents, send them to the Parliament and three days later they are declassified?”, said Meta in the press conference today, also explaining to whom the I.M. initials belonged.

“There were three students with the initials I.M. We had our fathers’ names also written in the register not to let the teachers get confused. Who asked from the Authority the verification of Ilir Meta, what was the emergency to do so? They even had bills ready to pass into laws. They must answer criminally for all the violations, because they have all been parts of a manipulation”, said Meta, referring to the Authority members against which he filed the complaint today.