The trial session against former defense minister Fatmir Mediu has once again been postponed. The next session will take place in June 7th and was set by the Court against Corruption and Organized Crime due to both of Mediu’s defense lawyers not being present at this Wednesday’s hearing. The latter had submitted a request to the secretariat of the Special Prosecution, that they would not be present at the hearing.
Fatmir Mediu is under accusation by the Special Anti-Corruption Structure for “abuse of office” and “abuse of office in cooperation with military command staff” over the tragedy in Gërdec, back in 2008.
Mediu has previously denied the accusations in court and declared in his capacity as Defense Minister, he only implemented the Decisions of the Council of Ministers on the dismantling of weapons. 26 people died and more than 350 others were wounded after an ex-military ammunition depot in Gërdec detonated. Albanian and American munitions experts were preparing to destroy stockpiles of obsolete ammunition. The methodical destruction was supposed to occur with a series of small, controlled explosions. However, a chain of events led to the entire stockpile detonating simultaneously. Hundreds of houses were demolished within a few kilometers of the depot, while the explosions could be heard as far away as the North Macedonian capital of Skopje, 170 km away.
The Special Court has accepted summary trial for Mediu and if found guilty, he will automatically benefit from a reduction of a third of the sentence.
On the other hand, the Special Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a parallel investigation regarding the accusation of corruption and money laundering in the Gërdec tragedy. The investigation started based only on criminal offenses, without any specific names of the people believed to be involved.
