Although the Special Court of Appeals decided on Thursday to return former Minister of the Environment, Lefter Koka, to prison in connection with the Tirana incinerator affair, this decision remains unexecuted, as he has been abroad for nearly four and a half months.
Former Minister Koka was sentenced on April 16, 2025 by the First Instance Court to 2 years in prison for abuse of office in collaboration with the Tirana incinerator affair. The court also ordered the termination of the security measure and his release in this matter with the argument that the sentence had been served during detention, but two other decisions on the Elbasan and Fier concession contracts prevented his release.
Koka was released in December by a decision of the Durrës Court, after it was deemed that he had served the sentences imposed on him. During the appeal hearing, the prosecutor in the case, Dritan Prençi, requested that the trial for Koka be partially repeated, requesting a recalculation of the sentence.
According to prosecutor Prençi, after the Durrës Court's decision to release defendant Lefter Koka on bail in December of last year, it was not possible to terminate the security measure of "prison arrest". Prençi claimed that the arrest measure for this case had been suspended, as the measures for the affairs of the other two incinerators, the one in Fier and the one in Elbasan, were being consumed.
The Special Court of Appeals accepted the prosecutor's request and decided on Thursday to overturn the part of the First Instance's decision regarding the termination of the security measure, from which Koka must serve the remainder of his sentence.
Koka's lawyer, Maksim Sota, considers this decision of the Special Court of Appeals to be unfounded and exceeding its powers.
Sota told BIRN on Friday during a telephone conversation that the Special Court of Appeal in this case exceeded its competence, taking over the competence of the execution court, after having calculated the remaining sentence. According to him, in order to make a decision on the annulment of the part of the security measure, the Appeal Court must have calculated the time of the sentence served, which he insisted is not within the competence of this court. He explains that in this case, it is the court near the place where the sentence is imposed that calculates the remaining sentence.
Regarding the fact that Koka is abroad, lawyer Sota explained that his client has shown health problems since he was in prison and after being released in December, he went abroad to receive more specialized treatment and medication.
Sota said that the decision of the Special Appeal has been notified to Koka and that he will return as soon as he completes his treatment.
If the execution of the Special Appeal decision cannot be carried out within a period of 5 years, then the punishment is time-barred and not carried out. Lirime Çukaj, a professor of criminal law at the University of Tirana, explained to BIRN that based on letter “c” of Article 68 of the Criminal Code, the punishment is not executed when five years have passed from the day it became final for decisions that contain a prison sentence of up to five years or other lighter punishments. “In such a case, the punishment is time-barred and not carried out,” Çukaj claimed.
Regarding the manner of executing the Appeal decision, SPAK told BIRN that it will continue the procedural actions of executing the court decision, according to the procedure provided for by the Code of Criminal Procedure and the law "On the Execution of Criminal Decisions".
The Tirana incinerator is the largest project among three controversial projects of Prime Minister Edi Rama's government for the treatment of urban waste, but the incinerator was never built, while tens of millions of taxpayers' euros disappeared without a trace.
The concessionaire company of the Tirana incinerator, Integrated Energy BV SPV, was seized in August 2023 by the Special Prosecution Office, after it was discovered that its ultimate owners were two notorious businessmen, Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtiri.
The Special Prosecution Office concluded that the concessionaire company was aware of the competitive circumstances before the procedure was announced and that it was assisted by public officials in preparing the documentation and submitting the bid that declared it the winner. /BIRN/
