The new justice’s double standard: Berisha and Veliaj

The story of Gërdec might have remained a “technological accident” had it not uncovered a much darker reality — a story of corruption and state capture by the Berisha family. For eighteen years, Albania’s justice system, both the old and the new, has circled around this case without touching its core. The trial closed by the old justice system convicted several businessmen and officials for workplace negligence. The case against former defence minister Fatmir Mediu was later reopened after a ruling from Strasbourg and a long chain of legal procedures. Yet even today it is treated not as a story of corruption and state capture by the Berisha family through him, but simply as abuse of office.

The central figure in this story is neither Fatmir Mediu nor Delijorgji, but Shkëlzen Berisha. He was the architect of the project, the man who pushed it through and the one who secured the political and state support needed to implement it in violation of the rules. Along the way he also took control of a second business in Gërdec. That case was exposed in a New York Times investigation written by nine journalists on 9 March 2008. It involved the repackaging of Chinese ammunition for Kalashnikov rifles destined for American soldiers in Afghanistan — a scheme that pushed Kosta Trebicka out of the business and, ultimately, out of life.

Eighteen years later, the outcome is stark: twenty-six people dead in Gërdec, one more dead in the mountains of Gramsh, and the architect of the project now a millionaire with undeclared wealth who finances both a television station and a political party in conditions that are entirely illegal.

Today the key figure behind Gërdec finances the Berisha family’s television channel. By conservative estimates — counting the undeclared salaries paid to staff — the station runs on roughly €300,000 a month. Between 2021 and 2025, during Sali Berisha’s struggle with Lulzim Basha, the same source also financed Berisha’s Democratic Party with staggering sums in order to sustain his battle through an informal party structure.

So the question is simple. Prosecutor Olsi Dado is trying to investigate and charge Erion Veliaj’s brother with money laundering. Yet Arbër Veliaj runs a perfectly legal marketing company that distributes advertising for the telecom company ONE and several other firms. His role is simply that of an intermediary: he collects money from those companies and places advertising in media outlets.

The psychological pressure that the SPAK prosecutor is applying to the Hungarian-owned company ONE — pushing it to break ties with Arbër Veliaj’s firm — and the media campaign that accompanies this effort exist for one reason only. Arbër Veliaj is the only financial source paying the lawyers who defend Erion Veliaj. According to the prosecutor, those lawyers are damaging his reputation internationally by producing reports critical of the investigation.

At the same time, the same justice system shows no concern whatsoever about the central figure of Gërdec — the place where the Berisha family’s capture of the state first took shape. He accumulated wealth through illicit means and was officially designated by the United States as “a beneficiary of major corruption because of his ties to then-prime minister Sali Berisha.” Yet he is not investigated for money laundering in businesses with clearly undeclared income, such as the Berisha family’s television channel or the illegal financing of a political party. Prosecutors do not even bother to touch the documented complaint for money laundering that was submitted to the Tirana prosecutor’s office.

What we have, then, is the relative of a victim of the new justice system being harassed simply for paying his brother’s legal defence. At the same time, the son of a prime minister formally accused of corruption by the United States — corruption that cost human lives — remains untouched.

After this, the entire “new justice” begins to look like a special unit pursuing Sali Berisha’s enemies. It pretends to open a case over the Partizani club only to ensure that it collapses. It pretends to reopen the case of 21 January only to quietly close it again. And it remains silent in the face of one of the most dangerous developments in Albanian politics today: the financing of a political party and a media outlet with undeclared money in order to shield themselves from justice and strengthen political immunity through illegal funding.

Meanwhile, its only real focus is to lynch someone simply for using legal money to pay lawyers who challenge it.

The article initially appeared in Albanian titled: Dy standardet e drejtësisë së re, me familjen Berisha dhe familjen Veliaj