{"id":18539,"date":"2021-08-05T13:19:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T11:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=18539"},"modified":"2021-08-05T14:27:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T12:27:43","slug":"former-pm-berisha-files-libel-lawsuit-against-us-secretary-of-state-blinken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/former-pm-berisha-files-libel-lawsuit-against-us-secretary-of-state-blinken\/","title":{"rendered":"Former PM Berisha files libel lawsuit against US Secretary of State Blinken"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced on Thursday in a press conference that his lawyer has filed a defamation lawsuit against the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.<\/p>\n<p>Berisha stated that this will be the first time that he heads to a court, adding that he would have never thought to sue the secretary of state of a country that he highly values.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, at 77-years old, will be the first time that I head to a court and I\u2019d never imagined that I would sue the secretary of the United States, a country that I admire so much\u201d, said the former premier.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Secretary Blinken designated Sali Berisha, and his close family members, as persona non-grata over allegations of \u201cserious corruption\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Berisha called on Blinken to publish the evidence behind this decision, which he referred to as &#8220;politically motivated&#8221; while informing that his attorney has already filed the libel lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Berisha explains that he is willing to go through this entire process solely to \u201creinstate his dignity\u201d and \u201cbe transparent with the Albanian citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding a recent meeting between US Ambassador Yuri Kim and the leader of the Democratic Party Lulzim Basha, Berisha explained that Basha had called on the ambassador to reveal what were the accusations.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from Berisha, the US Department of State has also publicly designated former Prosecutor General Adriatik Llalla, former Durres mayor Vangjush Dako and former Socialist MP Tom Doshi.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018No other parliamentary group other than the Democrats\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha emphasized that he will not renounce his parliamentary mandate.<\/p>\n<p>Asked from Euronews Albania journalist Ardit Hoxha whether he will join the DP\u2019s parliamentary group, despite the appeal of US Ambassador asking Democrats to distance themselves \u201cfor the interests of a single person\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no other parliamentary group other than the DP, I\u2019ve said before that even if there\u2019s only one left, I\u2019ll stand by as the second. This my solemn oath to the Democrats\u201d, insisted Berisha.<\/p>\n<p>According the parliament protocol, MPs have 5 days to declare which parliamentary group they intend to join, and Berisha asserts that he will represent the Democrats as \u201cper the will of those who elected him\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/albania\/2021\/05\/19\/sali-berisha-barred-from-entering-us-territory-declares-secretary-of-state-blinken\/\">Former PM Sali Berisha declared persona \u2018non-grata\u2019, confirms U.S Secretary of State Blinken<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/albania\/2021\/07\/30\/us-embassy-calls-on-dp-to-disassociate-from-berisha-a-tragedy-if-the-party-were-to-eat-grass-for-the-sake-of-one-man\/\">US Embassy calls on DP to disassociate from Berisha: A tragedy if the party were to eat grass for the sake of one man<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced on Thursday in a press conference that his lawyer has filed a defamation lawsuit against the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Berisha stated that this will be the first time that he heads to a court, adding that he would have never thought to sue the secretary of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":18540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[150,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former PM Berisha files libel lawsuit against US Secretary of State Blinken - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/former-pm-berisha-files-libel-lawsuit-against-us-secretary-of-state-blinken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former PM Berisha files libel lawsuit against US Secretary of State Blinken - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced on Thursday in a press conference that his lawyer has filed a defamation lawsuit against the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 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