TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An Albanian court on Wednesday released from house arrest former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who leads the opposition Democratic Party and is charged with corruption.
The Special Court for Corruption and Organized Crime, which covers cases involving senior officials and politicians, revoked its order for Berisha's house arrest, issued almost a year ago, without giving any reason.
Berisha's parliamentary immunity was removed in December 2023 and he was placed under house arrest after he violated an earlier order to report to the court every two weeks. He was also barred from traveling abroad, but that order was struck down last week by the Constitutional Court.
Berisha, 80, hailed hundreds of supporters waiting for him at the Democratic Party’s headquarters shouting his name.
“Today we are nearer than ever to our triumph, the Democratic Party’s return to power,” he told the crowd, repeating the party’s call to the governing Socialists to create a technocratic caretaker cabinet to take the country to free elections.
During his period of house arrest, Berisha stayed in his apartment in downtown Tirana. Though he was banned from communicating with other people than his family and lawyers, every evening he gave speeches to small groups of supporters gathered outside his building.
Depriving Berisha of communication and physical presence to lead his party was a daily issue in Albania's politics because he’s the leader of the main opposition party. A parliamentary election will take place next spring.
In October 2023, prosecutors put him under investigation for allegedly abusing his post to help his son-in-law, Jamarber Malltezi, privatize public land to build 17 apartment buildings in the capital, Tirana.
In September this year Berisha was formally charged with corruption in connection with a property deal. He has denied the charges, describing them as political repression ordered by Prime Minister Edi Rama of the governing left-wing Socialist Party.
Berisha was prime minister from 2005-2013 and served as president from 1992-1997. He was re-elected as a lawmaker for the Democratic Party in the 2021 parliamentary elections.
The United States government in May 2021 and the United Kingdom in July 2022 barred Berisha and close family members from entering their countries because of his alleged involvement in corruption.
Members of the Democratic Party and their supporters in an opposition coalition have been holding protests over the arrests of their leader Berisha and former President Ilir Meta in separate corruption cases, saying the charges are politically motivated.
The opposition accuses the government of corruption and wants it to be replaced by a technocratic caretaker Cabinet before the 2025 parliamentary election.
The United States and the European Union have urged the opposition to resume dialogue with the government, saying violence won’t help the country integrate into the 27-nation European Union.
In October, Tirana started discussions with the bloc on aligning with the EU on the rule of law, the functioning of democratic institutions and the fight against corruption. Albania aims to join the bloc by 2030, according to Rama.
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FILE - Sali Berisha, the leader of the Albanian opposition center-right Democratic Party, speaks in Tirana, Albania, on Dec. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Franc Zhurda, File)
PARIS (AP) — Marine Le Pen’s trial is ending with one key question: will France’s leading far-right figure be able to run in the next presidential race?
Her lawyer spoke Wednesday for the last time at the trial in Paris on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds.
The Paris court is expected to render its verdict in the spring of next year. It could declare Le Pen ineligible to seek public office if it finds her guilty. That could throw her political future into disarray and upend the election race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, scheduled in 2027.
Le Pen's National Rally party and 25 of its officials, including her, are accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay instead staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.
Le Pen and other co-defendants denied wrongdoing.
Paris prosecutors have requested a 2-year prison sentence for Le Pen. In addition, they asked for a 5-year period of ineligibility to run for office “with immediate effectiveness" — independent of whether she files an appeal or not.
Such a verdict would be the worst-case scenario for Le Pen.
Le Pen’s lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, said Wednesday his client pleaded “not guilty.”
He said he would seek to convince the court that Le Pen's actions “were ordinary, trivial, practiced by all European similar opposition parties… and with no fraudulent intent, precisely because it was considered accepted and not prohibited.”
Bosselut also said the prosecutors' requests were like “a weapon of mass destruction of the democratic game," adding that a decision barring Le Pen from running for office would have “irremediable, irreparable consequences."
For over a decade, Le Pen has worked at making her party more mainstream, dulling its extremist edge to broaden its appeal to voters.
She has already positioned herself as a candidate to succeed Macron, having finished runner-up to him in 2017 and 2022.
But the trial could prove to be a major and possibly decisive hurdle.
Le Pen appeared in recent weeks to anticipate a guilty verdict, telling the panel of three judges: “I feel we didn’t succeed in convincing you.”
In court, Le Pen has been a forceful presence. Outside the courtroom, she's repeatedly expressed irritation at charges she says are unfounded.
A measure of the potential gravity of the case for Le Pen is the time and energy she has devoted to the hearings. She often stayed late into the night as nitty-gritty courtroom debates about the role and financing of parliamentary aides dragged on.
Le Pen argued all the work done by aides was justified and above board. She said their missions had to be adapted to the MEPs’ various activities, including some highly political tasks related to the party.
Prosecutors spoke of the “unprecedented” dimension of the alleged embezzlement and its "organized, maximized, systemic and systematic nature.”
They alleged that Le Pen was central in what they called a “system” for her party to “save money at the expense of the European Parliament.”
They also said some of the well-paid jobs contributed to finance the “comfortable lifestyle” of Le Pen’s family and friends.
“They made from the European Parliament their cash cow,” prosecutor Louise Neyton said. “If the Parliament had not rung the bell, they would have continued.”
“Their only regret is they have been caught!"
Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who before used to be her father’s bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.
Le Pen’s sister, Yann, is also accused of having been paid as an EU parliamentary aide when she was instead in charge of organizing the party’s big events.
Others worked as aides to party officials they had no employment contract with.
Prosecutor Nicolas Barret acknowledged that a verdict rendering Le Pen ineligible to seek public office is "not without consequences, obviously for those convicted, but also for (France's) public and democratic life.”
Yet the judicial authority “merely takes note of fraudulent behavior and is not at the origin of the situation,” he insisted.
Prosecutors requested a guilty verdict for all of Le Pen's co-defendants, including various sentences of up to one year in prison and a 2-million euro fine for the party.
A potential appeal could lead to another trial for the case in 2026 — just before the next presidential race.
Far-right National Rally member and former Europarliament member Jean-Lin Lacapelle arrives at the courtroom for the last day of the trial on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Louis Aliot, a member of the far-right National Rally party, arrives at the courtroom for the last day of the trial on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the last day of the trial on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the last day of the trial on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the last day of the trial on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
