In Albania, the Special Court assesses that the investigation of the former Minister of Health Ilir Beqaj, only under the suspicion of “Abuse of duty”, is not complete, and from the criminal facts brought by the prosecution for evaluation before the judge of the preliminary investigation “there is the suspicion of reasonable based on evidence that the person under investigation Ilir Beqaj has also consumed the elements of the criminal offense of “Forgery of seals, stamps and forms”.
This is the second time that the Special Court has intervened in the investigation of the procedures for the sterilization of surgical equipment. When the entrepreneur Ilir Rrapaj and former deputy minister Klodian Rrjepaj were arrested in August, the Court made a detailed evaluation of the file presented by the prosecutors of the case, where Mr. Beqaj was not involved. The court pointed out that “regardless of the position of the prosecution, from the analysis of the evidence administered and seen in their unity, violations of legal and by-laws are evident in them, which rise to the level of criminal responsibilities for the former Minister of Health Beqaj and the former Minister of Finance Cani, as well as for four commissioners of public procurement”.
In his decision on the assessment of the security measure, that of the obligation to appear and the prohibition of movement abroad, against the former Minister of Health, Judge Erjon Bani notes that “in the “Form for the publication of the notice of the signed Contract” dated 10.12.2015 on the part of the person under investigation Ilir Beqaj, in the capacity of the holder of the contracting authority, false data were reflected regarding the type of procedure followed, citing “Open procedure”, hiding the fact that “Procedure was followed” with contract negotiation” as stipulated in the standard concession documents. After the additional investigations made by the prosecution and more specifically the administration of the expert reports on the telephones of the persons under investigation, the Court is convinced that the person under investigation, Ilir Beqaj, was aware of all the procedures and documentation administered by the Concession Commission . So, it was not in the conditions of good faith, on the contrary, there is a reasonable doubt about his role that he has the quality of the organizer in this premeditated criminal activity for granting the concession of sterilization to the predetermined winner”, the judge’s decision states.
In the document, the judge also explains his role when he states that “the judge of the preliminary investigation is independent in assessing the fact and can make a different legal definition of the criminal fact than that of the prosecution in order to assess the importance of the criminal fact and the punishment that can be assigned to the suspect at the end of the trial. The court makes this assessment independently, regardless of the fact that the prosecutor has changed the legal definition according to Article 287 of the Penal Code, as the court is not obliged to take into account the position of the prosecution regarding the legal definition of the fact”.
Currently, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Mr. Beqaj for “abuse of duty”. According to the Court’s decision, “false data related to project costs have been allowed to be reflected in the feasibility study. If the entire legal procedure for obtaining and administering the legal documentation that determines the needs and costs of the project had been followed, in no case could it be concluded that the concession procedure was an economically more favorable procedure than the public procurement procedure”.
As in the decision of August, judge Bani again estimates that the investigations should also include the former Minister of Finance Shkëlqim Cani. “The court would like to emphasize that if the Minister of Finance and the persons subordinate to him (for whom an in-depth investigation is needed to reveal the identity of each one) would have exercised their powers in accordance with the legal and by-laws, in the case concretely, the economic damage ascertained by the High State Control would not have been caused. The court wishes to emphasize that there are reasonable doubts based on evidence that the former Minister of Finance Mr. Sh. C. in this particular case acted intentionally, as there is no objective and legitimate reason that for the same feasibility study within a period of 1 month and 15 days, there are two diametrically opposed answers”, says judge Bani.
Mr. Beqaj expressed reservations about the court’s decision, while he emphasized that the health system and the patients who underwent surgical interventions benefited from a quality service that reduced hospital stays and significantly reduced post-operative infections. According to the court’s decision, he must appear every Friday before a judicial police officer.