Former Vlora prosecutor Aurel Zarka, who is now a free citizen after serving a shortened sentence for the "Toyota Yaris" case, has been stopped at the Albania-Italy border, after being deemed "non grata" by Greek authorities due to his duty as the initial prosecutor in the Beleri case.
For all those who don't remember, the arrest of Fredi Beleri for vote buying was carried out by this prosecutor and then the case was transferred to SPAK's jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, a short time later, Zarka was arrested on charges of having unlawful influence in the "Toyota Yaris" case and was imprisoned, while the file was declared a state secret.
After being released from prison, he is facing a new sentence, as a person banned from traveling to Europe due to a political punishment by Greek authorities for all European Union countries.
Personally, I was one of the few who criticized the arrest warrant against Fredi Beleri on the day of his arrest three days before the elections. Not because I knew the facts, but for the political context, the arrest three days before the elections taints the elections and saves the corrupt candidate even if you have evidence, as it implicates his gesture in an electoral situation. It would be more serious if the prosecution did not rush, collected evidence and then Beleri could have been arrested while he was in office as mayor.
But this is an issue that now, as Edi Rama says, Beleri was better off becoming an MEP.
The problem raised by the political punishment of the Greek authorities against this prosecutor, but also the judges of Vlora who dealt with this case, risks being extended to the judges of the GJKKO.
Verifications are needed for this.
What is interesting in this whole story is that it clearly seems that someone has "taken revenge" for Beleri by imprisoning the prosecutor who arrested him, his rival Jorgo Goro, and former Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka, who became a target after his arrest.
It seems that a careful hand has made sure that anyone who had problems with the "Beleri" file ends up in prison.
Aurel Zarka is not a supporter of Edi Rama's government, but he acted as a prosecutor who encountered evidence of electoral crime. He could have been more professional and more patient to collect more, but that's how he thought. Now he can't step foot in any country in Europe for this.
Jorgo Goro is back in prison, waving a land AMTP that he has confirmed as registered and that overlaps with another AMTP. As far as we know with these pieces of paper produced in 1991 and recycled until 2026, they could both be fake, and there are thousands of such cases in Albania, but someone in SPAK made sure that even though this precedent could arrest 61 mayors in Albania, he was arrested, and even returned to prison, since more than a mayor in breach of duty, he was a rival of Fredi Beleri.
Olta Xhaçka was also massacred, because her husband bought a piece of land twice, once from the one who has the papers and once from the one who claims them, and in fact she was seen as a Foreign Minister who was defending Beleri's arrest.
If you add up all three cases, it doesn't seem like much of a coincidence that in two of these three cases, prosecutor Olsi Dado is of Greek descent with good family credentials and biography.
For the sake of truth, SPAK has had all its power precisely in the support of the US embassy and the European Union countries, and it doesn't make much difference whether someone is in a cell because the US or EU ambassador ordered it, and someone else because the Greek ambassador ordered it.
We want a new justice system independent not only from the Albanian government, but also from other neighboring or friendly governments. We do not want to massacre our government and satisfy the appetites of ambassadors for arrests.
But in this case, in addition to the arrest warrant that appears to have come from Greece, which appears to have its own prosecutor's office in SPAK, there is also this additional punishment as "non grata" at the borders of Europe, which is excessive.
Of course, he can appeal to Italy and win the case, but our new judiciary should read more of the Criminal Code and less of embassy emails when making decisions.
The Criminal Code also contains EU standards. And US standards. In embassy emails, there are only the wishes of diplomats. They finish their work and leave, but they leave the problems here.