VIDEO/ Ahmetaj: The Ecopark was done by Edi Rama. The McGonigal case is a scandal. A russian oligarch was backed

Former deputy to Edi Rama, Arben Ahmetaj, said during his interview on Çim Peka LIVE that the new justice system is trying to pin the corrupt Ecopark affair on Lefter Koka.

According to Ahmetaj, however, the Ecopark was carried out by Edi Rama himself, and Koka had not been a minister for two years by the time the corrupt deal was signed.

Commenting on another scandal, the McGonigal case, Ahmetaj said that a Russian oligarch was supported in that affair.

Çim Peka: It hasn’t started... no, it hasn’t finished. It hasn’t even started.

Arben Ahmetaj: It hasn’t finished, fine, let’s call it that. And they handed it over to certain people. He degraded Erion Veliaj, mocked his family, mocked them repeatedly. He even posted Facebook statuses to personally antagonize prosecutors... prosecutors who should not have fallen into the trap set by the head of the organization.

In the end, Erion Veliaj has the presumption of innocence. He does. You don’t get to look at him with hostility just because Edi Rama told you to. It was degenerate. And he was left in his office to be arrested.

And every time Erion sends some message, assets are released: Erion’s brother gets another four-million deal from One, someone else gets a tender from prison, someone else gets a chicken. This is his habit; this is what he likes to do. Who among them has managed to speak? Of course, none. If I were inside, I wouldn’t be alive. I was never his depository. Never. In the end, despite whatever mistakes I may have made in my life, I respected the state.

You have the documents. The documents. Take incinerators, sterilization... I’ll show it... Bankers, everything. My written records are there. They’re there. They went mad. You have no idea what they demand. Not a single SMS of mine. My most serious message is: “Can we have a coffee with the opposition?” We barely even had coffee with the opposition. Fine. Let’s come to the Ecopark.

Do you know they pinned the Ecopark on Teri? The Ecopark was done two years after Teri had left. Yes, they pinned it on Teri, and they are threatening him. Now they say, “Look, we’ll send you back to prison,” so that Teri doesn’t speak out. Just so he carries the burden. The Ecopark was done by Edi Rama. There is a public letter that we released, a public letter ordering direct procurement. His partner’s child did the project and was paid by the incinerators.

Now imagine if it were my child... just imagine it for a moment, Mr. Dumani. Bring it into that emotionally charged mindset you have toward me. As you yourself say, you’ve taken it personally. If Livia or Kejsi had done this, what would you have done? You would have gone to parliament, as you like to do, and said: “This man is internationally wanted.” You see? You should be the one to become a pentito.

Dumani, you should become the pentito. You should face Albanians and say: “I’m sorry that I listened to and followed the orders of the head of the organization and broke the law. I violated a person’s rights. I even threatened witnesses.” Say that one day... because the damage you’ve done to democracy and justice, to families and to yourself, is immense.

As for me, forget it. You’ve clearly taken it personally against me. I don’t know why this emotional fury toward me exists... I truly don’t. So why was the Ecopark built without a tender? Why? Why wasn’t reconstruction done without a tender? Reconstruction was an emergency. People were living in tents... it was an emergency. But we didn’t do reconstruction that way. Why was the Ecopark done?

Into whose hands did it go? Why was it pinned on Teri? Why is Teri being threatened with being sent back to prison, when he has already served his time? What is the reason? The reason is so he doesn’t speak. So he doesn’t speak about this.

Where is the person who signed it? I’ll give investigative journalists a hint. The person who signed it was the deputy of Alqi Bllako. Alqi didn’t sign it. Alqi is just foolish... he didn’t sign it. Where is the signer today? That’s all. I’ll leave it there... investigate it. What has he said? Where has the person who signed the Ecopark spoken? About 20 days ago. That’s it. Mr. Peka, I am neither ANSA nor 007.

Çim Peka: Alqi Bllako’s deputy?

Arben Ahmetaj: Alqi Bllako’s deputy at the time signed the Ecopark. And he spoke about 20 days ago.

Çim Peka: Spoke about 20 days ago, spoke in support of...

Arben Ahmetaj: It’s interesting. We’ll follow it. We’ll follow it.

Çim Peka: Leave it there.

Arben Ahmetaj: But let me remind Albanians of the McGonigal case... it’s very important. What happened? The McGonigal case... fine.

Çim Peka: One second, because now you’re turning this into a bit of a quiz. The former deputy of Alqi Bllako who signed the Ecopark... is she the ambassador’s sibling?

Arben Ahmetaj: I’m neither ANSA nor 007. But I do know. Mr. Peka...

Çim Peka: I want to connect something.

Arben Ahmetaj: Please, can you investigate it, or assign someone to investigate it?

Çim Peka: Message received. Investigate it.

Arben Ahmetaj: Fine. There are very good journalists who can get to the root.

Çim Peka: They’re on it.

Arben Ahmetaj: Okay. The McGonigal case is alarming. It involves the corruption of a special agent of the services of our main partner, our strategic partner, the United States. Russian oligarchs were supported. And will you apply the same standard you have used in other cases? The $10,000 dinner.

And Dumani says it is under investigation. How can it be under investigation? You dragged Erion Veliaj through court proceedings for a year. You arrested me for two months. This case requires... this takes... 20 years. Twenty years, meaning for the file to be compiled, for questioning to take place, for procedures to be carried out. He has done extraordinary things with my case file. He merged it and coordinated with the incinerators to fabricate charges... illegally. We can bring it out at some point. It’s not relevant right now for Albanians. But I’m talking about this.

So why are you handling that file so carefully? What is your problem? Or, as someone at the High Prosecutorial Council said, the prosecutor said he must maintain “political balance.” Political balance... meaning the arrest of a former deputy prime minister and a former mayor served you for political balance.

While the arrest of these people does not serve you for political balance. And why don’t you directly seek the lifting of immunity... why go around in circles? Why go to the Constitutional Court? Why? What is the reason? I’ll tell you. Do you want my position on that issue, Mr. Peka? Shall I share it with Albanians? Yes, the prime minister of the country has the right to go to the Constitutional Court. Clearly. He has the right, because there is a question... excuse me, let me finish... whether another body can suspend a minister or not. He has the right to ask, to go to court. Absolutely. And the court has the right to rule, because it is a precedent and may decide one way or the other. But why doesn’t SPAK go directly and request the lifting of immunity?

Çim Peka: They did after that.

Arben Ahmetaj: But why? What game are you playing? What kind of theater is this? What theater?

Çim Peka: It should have been done from the beginning.

Arben Ahmetaj: Absolutely. From the very first moment. Why? Did Altin Dumani and the whole group of my former Socialist colleagues show such urgency that no one asked, what are you doing? An opposition MP asked, what is this rush? Why are you in such a hurry to arrest this person? They barely read the file... my lawyers were given 17 hours. Seventeen hours. Seventeen hours before I was placed under house arrest, excuse me, Albanians. Why don’t you submit the immunity request directly? Because this is the beloved deputy prime minister.

She is the Minister of Infrastructure, controls over 80 percent of the budget, continues to award tenders, continues to intimidate people, continues to act, continues to hold parties. She continues to direct, continues to erase evidence. Whereas in my case, I was nobody, and no one from the Socialist Party leadership dared speak to me, except Paulin Sterkaj and Alket Hyseni. The others didn’t dare approach me. Once I sat with an old friend I practically grew up with, and I asked him, why are you trembling? “In case someone sees us,” he said. Yes. What risk did I pose? I was nothing; no one approached me. No one. My friends pretended not to see me. Why? Because Rama and Altin Dumani were surveilling them. Things have changed a lot today. A lot. But I am still saddened... by their conduct, and by that of my colleagues.

And today Taulant Balla comes out and says, “We will study it.” Why didn’t you come out in my case, Taulant, to study it? What did you direct? You were the parliamentary group leader. You have eaten in my home. You know well what I have done and what I have not done. Why didn’t you say, let’s take the file and read it first? You gave 17 hours. What I am saying concerns SPAK’s entirely political approach. And here is the moment to repeat it: the treatment of Ilir Meta is a disgrace for Albania.

Ilir Meta has been a friend... both a friend and an enemy of Rama. He has been neither friend nor enemy to me. He was an enemy once, when he did not allow me for a second to be employed, when the late Fatos Nano wanted to appoint me director of public administration after I returned from the United States for the second time, from school. He treated me as an enemy, saying I was Nano’s and Ben Malaj’s man. I have had the honor of being associated with Nano and Ben Malaj, regardless of my current relations with Ben.

We have done extraordinary things for the country. We shut down the pyramid schemes; I shut down the customs offices... I was ordered to do so, told to go and shut them down because everything was in chaos and we would starve. Yes. And when I passed through Tepelenë, I nearly passed through gunfire. I have witnesses still alive who remember it. Yes. That’s the truth. And this is a political approach. I hope SPAK changes its gene of political dependence and its gene of disregard for human dignity and takes on a humane face. How is it possible to drag a former president like that? Did you see how Sarkozy was treated? You may like it or not... fine.

Çim Peka: Let’s not make comparisons.

Arben Ahmetaj: Wait, wait a second. I need to finish this to share it with Albanians.

Çim Peka: But the president of France is not...

Arben Ahmetaj: He is the honor of France.

Çim Peka: A gang leader, as you describe the one here.

Arben Ahmetaj: But still... one second... how is it possible? What honor? You film it. How dare you film a former president being dragged like a stray dog? I don’t know what he has done. I don’t know. You don’t treat someone like that. Why do you treat Erion Veliaj’s case differently, arresting him in his office, symbolically? For what reason? Take him at home. Look for... an elected mayor. There is no need for that.