Daily Times

Tirana: An Albanian anti-corruption tribunal on Friday sentenced a former interior minister to three years and four months in jail over abuse of power.

Samir Tahiri, a former political ally of socialist prime minister Edi Rama, was found guilty of “abuse of power and of having benefited” from people linked to drugs trafficking, judge Engert Pellumbi said.

Tahiri has been investigated by authorities since 2017 after his name was mentioned in wiretaps by two distant cousins in Italy, who were suspected of being drug traffickers.

“This is simply an injustice. I’m morally calm. I didn’t violate the law,” Tahiri, 42, said on Facebook just minutes before he was taken to a prison in Albania’s capital Tirana.

Tahiri has repeatedly said he was innocent, claiming he was the victim of “political manipulations”.

His lawyer Maksim Haxhiaj said they planned to appeal the ruling, calling the verdict “legal nonsense” whose goal was only to “tarnish Tahiri”. In September 2019, a Tirana tribunal sentenced Tahiri to three years in jail on probation after he was found guilty of abuse of power.

But last year, the country’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial due to procedural irregularities. Tahiri served as Albania’s interior minister from 2013 to 2017.
He resigned as an MP of the ruling Socialist Party in 2018 and was briefly placed under house arrest.

Albania is a hotspot for narcotics trafficking and a major producer of cannabis for years. The poor Balkans nation is also a transit point for heroin shipped from the Middle East and cocaine arriving from South America, with both drugs destined for the European market.

The issue has tarnished Albanian political life, with political rivals frequently accusing the other of having links with organised crime. The fight against organised crime and corruption remains a key condition for Albania’s bid to join the European Union.