TIRANA, June 12 – The prosecution authority for serious crimes, SPAK, asked the court on Monday to sentence the former Minister of Environment, Lefter Koka, to 10 years in prison, as guilty of 3 charges, that of abuse of office, corruption and money laundering in Fier’s incinerator corrupt scheme.
While 7 years in prison was the demand for the former deputy Alqi Bllako, for whom the prosecutor asked for added charges for “Abuse of duty” and “Passive corruption of high officials”, unlike what the judge of the preliminary session had decided, which did not consider him a high official.
The highest sentence among the 15 defendants in this file was requested for Klodian Zoto, the administrator of the company that won the concession of the Fier incinerator. SPAK told the Court to sentence him to 12 years in prison for several criminal offences.
Even for Arben Dervishaj, SPAK toughened its position, demanding his sentence of 4 years in prison for 2 charges, that of abuse of office and corruption of public officials, even though these charges were dismissed by the preliminary judge.
Sentences of 3 to 7 years in prison were requested for other former ministry officials and company administrators accused in this case. All will benefit from a reduced sentence due to the summary trial.
SPAK said that the former minister, Lefter Koka in cooperation with other former officials misused the office to favor the company of Klodian Zoto in winning the concession and received 146 million ALL in the form of a bribe from Zoto through a scheme of fictitious works and purchases for the incinerator. According to SPAK, this scheme has caused about 60 million ALL in damage to the state. /argumentum.al