Defense disputes updated indictment in "53 million" case

The retrial of the "53-million-dollar" case, where former Minister of Infrastructure, Pal Lekaj, and three of his former subordinates are accused, has begun with the defense's claims for substantial changes to the indictment. The prosecutor has denied the changes, saying that they are only additions.

The retrial in the Basic Court for the case known as the "53-million-dollar case" began on Wednesday with claims by the defense that the indictment was substantially changed after the case was returned by the Court of Appeal, while the prosecutor insisted that only its completion was made.

Lawyer Afrim Salihu, who defends former advisor to former minister Pal Lekaj, Eset Berisha, asked the trial panel for the right to object to the indictment, arguing that it has not only been completed, but also changed.

"I personally propose to the trial panel that before the indictment is read, we be allowed to object to the indictment with legal provisions, as provided by the Code in articles 242, 251, which allow the parties in the procedure to object to the indictment in such cases," said Salihu.
Even the main accused, former Minister Lekaj, said that the indictment was changed, not just supplemented. 
Special Prosecutor, Atdhe Dema, said that the indictment was supplemented at the request of the Court, but the criminal offenses, the articles that were allegedly violated, and the manner in which they acted are described the same in the updated indictment. 

"We are not dealing with changing the indictment, because the indictment remains the same, but we are only dealing with completing those points where additional clarification was requested," responded Prosecutor Dema.
In January 2024, the Constitutional Court found the defendants guilty of corruption during the construction of the “Arbën Xhaferri” highway project and sentenced them to a total of over 10 years in prison. But the former officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure had appealed the verdict and the second instance was in favor. 

At Wednesday's hearing, all defendants pleaded not guilty, except for Berisha, who said he did not understand the indictment and could not answer regarding guilt, arguing that he had no competence regarding the Law on Public Procurement.

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"In my capacity as political advisor to the Minister of Infrastructure, I have had no powers or attributes related to the Public Procurement Law, much less to Articles 1 and 2, the purpose of the Law, etc. I don't understand it, because I don't even find myself in the indictment," he declared.

But prosecutor Dema said that it is precisely the lack of competence that makes Berisha's role incriminating, since, according to him, he has illegally influenced procurement procedures, even exerting pressure on the former director of the Legal Department, Avdi Kamerolli, to give an opinion according to his instructions.

Lawyer Urim Vokshi, defending Besim Tahiri, former Director of Procurement at the Ministry of Interior, said that the indictment is unfounded, because Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Law on Public Procurement are not binding norms, but rather defining ones.

"Article 1 shows the purpose of the law, this article does not show what should be done, it does not define any obligation for anyone at all. It shows what the law intends to do, what the law intends to regulate. What the law intends to regulate is regulated by the provisions below, but not Article 1. The article cannot be violated, nor Articles 2 and 3, these are definitions," said Vokshi.

Also accused in this case is the former secretary of the ministry, Nebih Shatri. 

In this session, the parties presented their opening statements for this phase of the retrial, stating that they stand by the positions given during the trial in the first instance, but at the same time added additional assessments in relation to new developments after the Appeals decision. 

The "Arbën Xhaferri" highway, with a length of 55 kilometers, cost about 600 million euros and the project was supervised by the company "Hill International", contracted for 8.7 million euros as technical, financial and legal consultants, and that previously no payment was made without being certified by "Hilli".

The case known as the "53-million" in the first instance reached its epilogue on January 31, 2024. According to the Basic Court's judgment, the Government has allocated an additional 53 million euros to the company "Bechtel & Enca", which carried out the works on the Pristina-Han i Elezit highway, ignoring the opinion of "Hill..." which had concluded that only 14 million euros should be paid as compensation to the company performing the work for non-allocation of the budget in accordance with the dynamics foreseen in the basic contract for the performance of the works.

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This project was led by an Inter-Ministerial Commission, which proposed to the Government the allocation of 38 million euros more than the amount recommended in the “Hill” opinion. However, Lekaj is accused of not having made this opinion available to the Commission.

Years ago, KOHA published the opinion of the Hill company, which was not presented to the Committee or later to the investigation. After KOHA's reporting, the investigations into the case intensified and in February 2022, the Special Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment.