BIRN: "Right decision", the English court upholds the sanctions against Sali Berisha

Former prime minister Sali Berisha lost his last chance to clear his image in the United Kingdom after a local court rejected multiple claims submitted by his lawyers against a 2022 ruling that sanctioned him for involvement in major corruption during the time when he was prime minister in Albania.

Berisha, who recently received the stamp and symbols of the Democratic Party to become virtually the undisputed leader of the right-wing opposition in Albania, had less luck in the United Kingdom, where the Special Immigration Appeals Commission considered the decision declaring him as fair corrupt and based on reliable information.

Fergus Randolph KC, a senior barrister in the United Kingdom, had filed a complaint against Berisha in the UK justice system, making a number of allegations, including that the British government had made the decision based on unreliable information. , such as open sources and critical articles, or that the decision is disproportionate as it hits a politician who has already been in the opposition for a decade and not a politician in power like Mr. Rama, who is described by Berisha's lawyer as a person who collaborates with organized crime from a position of power. Randolph further argued that the United Kingdom cannot punish a former head of state because the latter must have sovereign immunity.

The court rejected all claims, including Berisha's oft-repeated allusion that his declaration as undesirable or non grata is based on unreliable media information.

Regarding the question of the reliability of the information that brought about the declaration of Berisha non grata, the decision, seen by BIRN, says: "If the material were limited to open source articles from newspapers or websites, we doubt that these in themselves would have supplied an adequate basis for specific inferences […]. But the materials we have seen include a careful assessment of the credibility of newspapers and websites, made by those with specific knowledge and experience of conditions in Albania."

The court also states that "the decisions were based on a large amount of internal reports in the form of diplomatic telegrams, which are diplomatic communications from the Embassy in Tirana to the Foreign Ministry in London. These assessments were not prepared for the purposes of the proceedings or to inform the detention decision: rather, they were prepared in real time and communicated in order to provide the UK Government with the most accurate information possible about a country of origin. certain".

The court declares that this information reported at different times "in our view, provides adequate sources of information for the purpose of making an entry ban decision."

Berisha, 79, was initially sanctioned by the US State Department in 2021. He claims that the sanctions against him are "based on lies".

Berisha has been under house arrest since last December, suspected by Albanian prosecutors of having changed a law for the benefit of his son-in-law Jamarbër Malltezi. Berisha and Malltezi reject the claims as untrue.

Commenting on the decision given in London, Berisha said on Monday: SIAC's decision adds a floor to the monument of corruption and shame of the decision to expel Sali Berisha."/ BIRN