Ruling majority is trying to cover up with a disinformation campaign the fact that the builders of floors without permission in the towers of Tirana - whom it has included in a scheme of legalization and criminal amnesty through a VKM with a dubious legal basis, are people connected to the power. 

Government's debatable campaign to denounce unauthorized additions to the towers built in Tirana continued on Friday with the denunciation by the Minister of Interior, Bledi Çuçi, of a 13-story building near "Myslym Shyri" street in Tirana. 

Through a recorded video, but which was broadcast as if it were 'live' on Prime Minister Edi Rama's Facebook page, Çuçi accompanied by the head of the National Inspectorate of Territory Protection, Dallandyshe Bici and the director of the Department for Public Security in the Police of the State, Rebani Jaupi said that every meter without permission of the palace in question will be returned to the people. 

"This subject not only has floors without a permit, but there is also a scandalous change in the project from the one previously approved," said Çuçi with the palace in the background. 

"What we are doing is not a media campaign or demagoguery", he further claimed in the video. 

After the live show on Facebook, BIRN visited the square of the 11-story building plus two attic floors reported as a crime scene, but instead of police, there were only construction workers there. 

The empty square to make the video was filled again with parked cars, while the sound of construction machinery echoed from inside the building. In a second square, the manual laborers continued to make mortar undisturbed. 

The seriousness of the campaign, which is based on a Decision of the Council of Ministers of September 7, has been questioned by the opposition and experts, who accuse the government of actually aiming for a criminal amnesty for builders under the government, violating both the Criminal Code and the Constitution. 

The last case denounced by Çuçi seems to give justice to the opposition's claims. 

The data provided by BIRN show that the building denounced by the Minister of the Interior in the area of ??"Myslym Shyrit" was built by "ARB & TRANS-2010"; a company founded by Arben Maloku, 36 years old, who until September 9, 2022 held the position of the chairman of the administrative unit of Zall-Herr of the municipality of Tirana and is the chairman of the Socialist Party in the same administrative unit. 

Asked by BIRN if a criminal complaint had been filed against "ARB & TRANS-2010" after the detection of legal violations, Bledi Çuçi, the State Police and Dallandyshe Bici did not respond. The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, also did not respond to the connection of the former municipal official with the floors without permission in the capital and the lack of referrals from the institutions subordinate to him for this construction. 

While the representative of "ARB & TRANS-2010", Esmeralda Maloku admitted that she was aware of the statements of the Minister of the Interior, but emphasized that she could not say what position the company would take. 

In the construction permit issued by the Municipality of Tirana, the building of the company "ARB & TRANS-2010" on "Myslym Shyri" street is described as "Residential and service building 4 and 5-9 floors, with two floors of underground parking and services". 

While denouncing the building, which according to him had not only added floors, but had gone completely outside the project, the Minister of the Interior, Bledi Çuçi, called the builder "courageous". 

According to him, the courage for adventure came because of the "old justice" that did not investigate and prosecute law breakers. 

But unlike what the minister declared in voice and figure, this construction has not been denounced in the prosecutor's office by the institutions subordinate to Çuç, such as the IKMT and the State Police, nor by those subordinate to the Municipality of Tirana, which were supposed to monitor the implementation of construction permit issued by them. 

In the statement about the propaganda video message, Çuçi did not mention either the owner or the name of the company that had committed the alleged legal violations. 

The company 'ARB & TRANS-2010' that carried out the construction was founded by Arben Maloku in 2010. In 2018, Maloku sold the shares to his father-in-law, Fatmir Firit for 100 thousand lek, while in October 2021, the latter gave him shares to Arbeni's father, Shyqyri Maloku. 

While the company was owned by the relatives of the municipal official, it received a construction permit and over 150 million ALL in tenders for public works from the Municipality of Tirana during the years 2019-2022. The list of tenders won also includes the construction of a water supply network in the village of Qinam, in the administrative unit that was headed by Maloku himself. 

Even after leaving the management of the administrative unit Zall-Herr, Maloku appears close to the high representatives of the socialists in Tirana and the mayor Erion Veliaj. 

On September 9, Maloku was one step behind Prime Minister Edi Rama and Mayor Veliaj during the inauguration ceremony of a new neighborhood in Zall-Herr, built for families left homeless by the 2019 earthquake.

At the inauguration ceremony, the SP deputy for the area, Xhemal Qefalia, took care to single out Malok among those who should be thanked "for hard work". Qefalia, in the video posted on Facebook by Erion Veliaj, after mentioning the resignation of the administrator, added that Malok was given "an even more important task". 

Immediately after Qefalia, even the mayor Veliaj singled out Maloku in his thanks, even the second after Prime Minister Edi Rama, while he remembered the trips they had made to the "distant" borders of the Municipality of Tirana. 

"Together with Ben Maloku, whom I want to greet with all my heart", said Veliaj. 

The company founded by Maloku has been denounced by the opposition as being involved in the controversial demolition of the National Theater in Tirana in May 2020. 

The deputy of the Democratic Party, Ina Zhupa, stated on May 21, 2020, that the tools of the ARB & TRANS-2010 company were used without a tender to clean up the debris after the collapse of the Theater. 

"Which next tower will you give to these construction companies as congratulations for the hard work in the demolition of the National Theater?" wrote Zhupa, who then connected the company with the name of Malok, who was at that time an administrator in Zall- Herr. 

Old justice, new accusations 

In early September, the government approved a VKM, according to which the floors built without a permit are either donated in exchange for the legalization of the building, or paid by the builders at the market price, plus an administrative measure. In return, the prime minister and the ministers themselves have promised the builders that they will not be prosecuted. 

But the opposition and experts think that while the decision strengthens administrative sanctions, it is essentially an attempt by the government to amnesty the criminal offenses of builders close to it, who risk up to 8 years in prison for illegal construction for the purpose of profit according to the Criminal Code. 

In order to defend themselves from these accusations, Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of the Interior, Bledi Çuçi, attacked the Tirana Prosecutor's Office on Friday, alluding that the VKM was a solution because the latter had not acted. 

"When they receive files from entities accused of tax evasion, construction without permission, and other crimes, they see it as an opportunity to enrich their pockets," said Minister Çuçi in the video message filmed near "Myslym Shyri" street. 

Çuçi emphasized that while the institutions subordinate to him had responsibility, the biggest burden fell on justice, but he did not pronounce any concrete case of inaction. 

But the chief prosecutor of Tirana, Arens Çela, told BIRN that as long as he was leading the prosecution, there were no such cases. Çela also said that all cases publicly denounced by members of the government "are under investigation by the prosecution". 

The Prime Minister declared on Thursday that the first donation contract was signed by a builder in favor of the state based on the VKM of September, for about 4600 square meters built without permission in the center of Tirana. A day later, he insisted that the prosecution's failure to respond to this case was the reason for the approval of the VKM by the government. 

Rama presented two sheets of a denunciation from the National Inspectorate of Territory Protection, in which it is claimed that the company 'Ideal Construction', with businessman Armand Lilo as the sole partner, violated the construction permit and that it should be prosecuted. 

The company in question is building the tower named "Eye of Tirana" near "Skënderbej" square. The denunciation is dated July 1, 2022, but Rama refers to it as having happened "some time ago". 

"And this is not the only case, but the case that poured out the cup of patience with justice, in relation to the various parellis, caught red-handed all these years by the State Police, Taxes and Customs or the National Inspectorate of Territory Protection, but turned into sources of income for the corrupt of justice", said the Prime Minister in his statement. 

Contrary to what Rama alluded to, the prosecutor of Tirana, Arens Çela, told BIRN that the case of the "Eye of Tirana" tower and the IKMT report were being investigated. 

"This case is under investigation like all other cases," said Çela, while adding that he did not want to get involved in political debates. 

Asked about the accusations and attacks by government representatives on the prosecuting body, the head of the High Prosecution Council, Alfred Balla, did not respond to a BIRN request for comment.

(Source: BIRN)