General Secretary of the SP Damian Gjiknuri denies the accusations of paying for the hotel in Vienna, after his name appeared in the SPAK file.

In a reaction to BIRN, Gjiknuri clarified that he himself slept in a hotel paid for by the ministry and that for the trip, all documentation, including invoices, were submitted to the ministry.

He even added that not only the ministry has the documentation, but he also personally has it.

"All my trips abroad have been on the usual flight lines, official visits to the minister's office. These facts can be easily verified by consulting the official documents of the ministry: service orders, purpose of travel, departure and destination," said Gjiknuri.

"Referring to the specific case and the date you cite for a trip to Vienna, I assure you that the prosecution, the ministry that I headed, but also myself personally have the practice of the service order, the plane tickets and the reservation of the hotel where I slept, all paid with invoices from the institution that I ran as the owner. FYI, the hotel where I slept is not the one you refer to but another one. Concrete data, the name of the hotel and the payments are part of the documentation available from the relevant ministry," added Gjiknuri.