By Biska Likmeta
“Albanian Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha was grilled by
Tirana prosecutors on Monday over 2017 payments for lobbying in the US and
related expenditures.
“The
Tirana Prosecutorial Office said it questioned Basha and three others DP
officials about the spending, which Basha later played down, saying it related
only to whether some spending statements filed by his party to the Central
Election Commission were correct.”
Prosecution: “’The subject declared [payments of] only 25,000 US dollars, while it
had not declared 650,000 US dollars in expenditures.
“We conclude that two payments totaling 650,000
US dollars for the purpose of lobbying in US have not been declared by the
subject,” the prosecutorial office said.
“In 2016, prosecutors in Tirana started a preliminary evaluation
over a payment of 80,000 US dollars after Bilal Shehu, an Albanian-US citizen,
pleaded guilty to making an illegal donation to the Obama Victory Fund for the
US 2012 presidential elections.
“The funds were used to get
Albania’s current Prime Minister, Edi Rama, into an Obama fundraising event in
San Francisco, where Rama had a
photo-opportunity with the then US president. Albanian
prosecutors have never brought charges against Rama over this.”
(Here’s a thing about Balkan
politics: Don’t believe anybody about anything. And, any Western politician who
gets involves in Balkan politics is stepping into a wild pig fight.)
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