VNA brings the next testimony of businessman Gerond Meçe, who was kidnapped on the orders of Ergys Agas and Ermal Beqiri to force him to withdraw from complaints about AKSHI tenders. Meçe says he was forced to cooperate with the kidnappers, who used threats and physical violence.
According to his testimony, the masked men allowed him to communicate with his family from time to time. He spoke to his wife, telling her that he was fine and would contact her later, and to his brother, whom he suggested contact the company administrator.
He says the group communicated with the company's administrator via his phone and messaging apps, in order to ensure that the company withdrew from the proceedings.
The businessman says he was released at around 16:20, after more than an hour of being held in a vehicle in an isolated area near the village of Gracen. Meçe was released from his handcuffs, leaving him on the Elbasan-Tirana national road and only a few personal belongings were returned to him. While the bag with the laptop, handbag and phone were promised that they would return the other things to the reception of the business center where he has an office.
He says that as they were dropping him off, the driver told him, "I don't want any problems from you, I don't want any complaints from you, otherwise we will kill you, wife, sister, mother, because you don't have a father."
Meçe returned to Tirana, where it was reported that the family had realized his kidnapping and were waiting for 6:00 PM to file a complaint, after they had cut off contact since 3:00 PM.
Excerpt from the testimony
Dated August 12
The third person at one point tells him that "If I see you in Elbasan I will talk to you, I don't know about you, I will talk to you". In order to achieve their goal, namely the withdrawal of the company from the procedures, the kidnapping group communicated with the administrator on his phone via the WhatsApp application, as well as giving Geront the phone from time to time so that he could communicate with the administrator himself, because their goal of withdrawal was not being achieved. During this time, they allowed him to talk to his wife to whom he said "honey, I'm fine, I have some work, I'll call you later". While his phone was ringing non-stop, person number one approached and said "Talk and calm this person down a bit because he keeps ringing the phone a lot". He saw that it was his brother's number and spoke to him. The brother said "Where are you, I'm very worried". The declarant said "You don't have to worry but talk to the administrator, Mimi". During the time he spent with person two and person three, he had various conversations and learned that the third person had just become a father with a daughter, while they had a pronounced Elbasan dialect, which he understood very well since he himself is from Elbasan, despite the fact that they tried to hide it as a fact. He also concluded the same thing from the conversation about person one, who was from Elbasan. While we were waiting in the vehicle with person two and person three, they asked him "How long does this procedure take?". They also asked person one "What are we waiting for?". Person one tells them that "we don't have confirmation". He has the car clock in front of him and it currently reads around 15:10. At another moment, the third person goes towards the trunk of the car, where person one approaches and tells him that "there is no complaint at the police".
At around 16:20, everyone gets into the car in the same positions as they were at the beginning and sets off towards Elbasan, on the old road. Here, after the driver tells him, they remove the handcuffs, and the driver says "Open your eyes, look where you are". The declarant says "I know very well where I am, that I am from Elbasan and here we are in Gracen". Along the way, they use the police siren to overtake. The car enters the direction of the village of Shijon, while the first person is talking on the phone with someone who told him to change the route and return to the national road. The car turns around and leaves about 200 meters near the first roundabout, where you enter the Elbasan-Tirana highway. At the moment they are leaving it, the driver says "I don't want any problems from you, I don't want any complaints from you, otherwise we will kill you, wife, sister, mother, because you don't have a father". They gave him his credit card holder and sunglasses and promised to bring the other things to the reception of the business center where he has his office, namely his backpack with a Lenovo laptop, his handbag and his phone. He explains that they have not brought these items to him yet. He got off the bus and went out onto the national road, heading towards the next Bradashesh roundabout, where there is a gas station. By chance, while waiting for a random car or bus, a car from his office passed by with the driver, engineer Jorgis Sollaku, who had been in Berat for work. He did not tell him anything, but brought them to Tirana as far as Toptani, where he went to his office. There he found out that the family had realized that he might have been kidnapped and were waiting for 6:00 PM to file a complaint, as they had cut off contact since 3:00 PM.
Specifically, his father went home and told his wife and mother, "I think the police have taken Geront." The wife started and tried to call him. Then the father notified his brother, who went and watched the footage of the incident, which he downloaded to a USB and identified the car's license plate. Then the brother went to all the police stations to ask if he had been kidnapped, but he did not receive any information and suspected Geront of being kidnapped, calling his phone without escort. He also went to SPAK to ask about his escort or detention, and because
He returned to the office and learned that withdrawals had been made for more procedures than those shown in the Excel spreadsheet by the group that took him in the car. Administrator Shkëlqim Kërluku drafted the withdrawal documents and went to hand deliver them to the KPP and the AKSHI, but they were not accepted by the KPP because they are not procedures. For this reason, he was subsequently forced to make a withdrawal from the system, which was completed around 15:00 on 12.08.2025. There are suspicions that the group that took him hostage released him around 16:20 on 12.08.2025 after receiving confirmation of the withdrawals deposited by the company in the KPP system. He links this suspicion to the fact that from his experience in this field, they must have an authority or connection within the KPP who has the ability and competence to verify it. He suspects that this person is called Kreshnik Tërnova, a member of the KPP by profession. He links this suspicion to the fact that Kreshnik Ternova is related to citizen Ermal Beqiri and they were seen together at the restaurant "Markata e Peshkut", in the New Bazaar. There are many procedures in which and when the KPP has ruled in his favor, KPP member Kreshnik Ternova has been against in the minority. He also highlights a case of a procedure related to the maintenance of the camera system of the General Directorate of Prisons, where this member, in the confrontational meeting between the KPP and the complaining company, has addressed the Procurement Authority to classify it as a classified tender, which was directly intended to eliminate their company.
He adds that the day after the kidnapping, the company "ABS" filed a request for the suspension of the "notice of withdrawal" with the KPP and the AKSHI, arguing that they had been hacked the day before. Despite having requested the suspension of the "notice of withdrawal", the KPP, in violation of the law, made a decision on August 13, 2025, to reject the suspension of the "notice of withdrawal", despite not having had time to put it on the agenda, that is, to prepare it 24 hours in advance. The company then received a notification, where the electronic signature was made on August 15 and not on August 13, and based on the law, the KPP is set in motion with a request for withdrawal and not with a notice of withdrawal, as in their case. Each of his procedures appealed to the KPP lasts more than two months, and he thinks that it is done intentionally since no procedure by other applicants lasts so long.
He suspects that the person who organized the kidnapping is citizen Ermal Beqiri. The reason he says this with conviction is because behind every such procedure is one of his companies or companies that are connected to him.
