Ilir Beqaj has been released from pretrial detention and will remain under house arrest, while in a public statement distributed by his lawyer he leveled strong accusations over the way he has been treated by the prosecution and the courts. The former Health Minister claims that his continued stay in pretrial detention was no longer legally supported and that for months he was held in violation of procedural deadlines.
Reaction after release
In the statement made public by lawyer Ermal Yzeiraj, Beqaj insists that he was not a “convict,” but in pretrial detention as part of a SPAK investigation. He says he has been under this measure for 25 months, while for 16 months he has also been a defendant, without any conviction so far even at first instance.
According to his version, the court ruled that his continued stay in pretrial detention was no longer supported by the provisions of criminal procedure, because the legal deadlines had expired. Beqaj claims this rendered invalid the pretrial detention decision of July 3, 2024, and that this fact was also acknowledged by the prosecution representative.
Claims of lack of evidence
The former minister goes further, declaring that an earlier decision by the preliminary hearing judge had reasoned that the arguments and evidence presented by the prosecution were insufficient to continue the trial.
Along this line of defense, Beqaj claims that for the last 15 months he was unjustly kept in pretrial detention and that charging him as a high-ranking official was done, according to him, in violation of the Constitution, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and several court decisions directly related to his case.
Three criminal proceedings and the confrontation with SPAK
Beqaj states that he currently has three criminal proceedings at SPAK, which, according to him, taken together extend over an investigative period of 16 years. He insists that, despite these proceedings, there is no conviction against him even at first instance.
In the statement, he denies that the investigations have proven any unlawful increase in wealth, saying that not “even a single lek or a single cent” has been found linked to his state duties. This remains part of his public defense, while the cases against him continue in the justice system.
From family to a warning about the trial in the autumn
After leaving pretrial detention, Beqaj says he is happy to be close to his family and that from September he will take part in the criminal proceedings no longer from the security cage, but with access also to the electronic version of the investigative files. He claims these rights were unlawfully denied to him by the courts, the prosecution, and the prison administration.
At the end of the statement, he also mentions a political message from Sali Berisha, without giving further details, and says he will respond in the autumn, when, according to him, Berisha appears as a witness in the trial over the surgical instruments concession.
Beqaj’s release from pretrial detention does not close the criminal cases against him, but it changes the terrain of his confrontation with SPAK and the courts.
Beyond the former minister’s strong political and legal statement, it remains the judicial process that will test the defense’s claims and the accusations raised against him.