TIRANA, September 8 – The Court against Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) accepted on Friday the request of the defense lawyer of former defense minister Fatmir Mediu for a normal judicial process and not in shortened form in the frame of the trial of the “Gërdeci” file.
At the opening of the session, the defense side requested that the trial of the case be conducted in a normal process, as it submitted a list of 90 witnesses, who will be questioned within the judicial process opened against the former Minister of Defense, Fatmir Mediu.
The list submitted to the Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime includes former high-ranking officials, such as the former defense ministers of Italy, Germany and North Macedonia, as well as former high-ranking US Defense officials and NATO generals.
The court is investigating the powerful explosion of the weapons dismantling depot in the village of Gërdec, an event that took place on March 15, 2008, where 26 people lost their lives, hundreds were injured and an entire village was destroyed.
The lawyer of the family members affected by the explosion in Gërdec, Dorjan Matlija, said at the end of the court session that the presentation of 90 names for testimony was part of the defense strategy to argue the transition from the shortened trial to the normal one.
The former Minister of Defense, Fatmir Mediu, is accused of “abuse of duty” and “abuse of duty in cooperation with military command staff” in connection with the process of demilitarization and dismantling of ammunition that took place in a military depot in the village of Gërdec near Tirana. /argumentum.al
