Albania Court Upholds Expert Testimonies in Meta Trial

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the testimony of three local expert witnesses in the corruption trial of former deputy prime minister Ilir Meta, despite protests from prosecutors.

Besar Likmeta

Tirana

Ilir Meta | Photo courtesy of Albania's MFA

Meta was charged with corruption in May after a video was broadcast appearing to show him discussing corrupt deals with another former minister, Dritan Prifti.

But the three experts, Ardian Pollo, Ermal Beqiri and Artur Rrahmani, told the court that they thought the probability that the video was manipulated was “high”.

An earlier review of the video was conducted by British and American experts on behalf of the prosecution. These experts ruled that the tape was authentic but the court has since dismissed their review as inadmissible.

Prosecutors contested the qualifications of the three local experts and called for their testimonies to be thrown out. The judges' panel, headed by Ardian Dvorani, rejected the prosecutors’ request.

General Prosecutor Ina Rama filed charges against Meta in early May after a four-month investigation, following the broadcast of the secretly filmed video in January .

Transcripts appeared to show Meta asking Prifti, the former economy minister, to intervene in a hydropower plant concession tender. Meta also appeared to mention a bribe by a businessman of €700,000.

The tape also appeared to show him boasting about having influenced a Supreme Court trial involving the same hydropower plant.

Meta also appeared to ask Prifti to hire activists of his own party, the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI. The LSI is the junior partner in the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. It controls the ministries of economy, foreign affairs and health.

Although it only holds four parliamentary seats, the LSI came out as a kingmaker in the 2009 parliamentary elections, which were narrowly won by Berisha’s right-wing Democratic Party. At the time of the recording Meta was both deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

Meta has repeatedly denied wrong-doing and has called the trial against him politically motivated.