The head of the Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), Arben Kraja, has stated in Parliament that the institution he heads will fully investigate any material that comes from the US.
This statement was made as he reported in the parliamentary plenary session on the state of crime in Albania for 2020 on Monday.
Replying to an MP about what will happen to the persons declared “non grata” by the US, if an investigation is launched against them, Kraja stated that “any information or material that comes to the SPAK from the United States will be investigated and it will go to the end of the cases.”
Recently the US State Department declared persona non-grata the first former president of post- communist Albania, and veteran leader of the Democratic Party (DP) Sali Berisha who had the great support of the United States in the 1990s when the pluralist process was undergoing in this Balkan country.
Sali Berisha was the favorite political figure of the US administration at that time.
“For the first time an accusation of money laundering has been made, and confiscation of assets has been achieved within the criminal offense of money laundering,” said Kraja in his report. According to him, SPAK cooperates with all structures like the Police, the internal control structures, but also with the international factor.
Regarding the list announced by the US, Kraja said that the list is a process that takes place in the US. “We are in Albania and we have our predictions for a criminal proceeding and how to go to court. What I guarantee is that any clues, or material that will come, or that we have available in relation to every Albanian citizen, without question, that we are determined to carry the criminal prosecution to the end,” he stressed.
It is not known what SPAK has done with other Albanian political figures who have been declared persona non-grata by the US. / argumentum.al
