FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
SPAK has requested that Shkëlzen Berisha, who is among the 71 names, be a witness in Fatmir Mediu's trial.
But there are also some characters that should be called there. Guy Lawson, the American investigative journalist, spoke a while ago.
In an exclusive interview for "Shqip" by Rudina Dzhunga some time ago, Lawson said that relevant persons who were involved in the story of Gërdec's weapons said that they met with Berisha, a matter for which both sides have been on trial for a long time.
Appreciating this step by SPAK, the American journalist says that it is necessary for the witnesses to speak, in order to find out what role Shkëlzen Berisha had in the Gërdec tragedy.
- Shkëlzen Berisha, Sali Berisha's son, was called to SPAK. Do you think this is news about Albanian justice?
Guy Lawson: Yeah, I thought so. I saw this on the news. As you remember, Berisha Junior sued me in the United States claiming that I said things that were defamatory of him, but that case was dismissed. The courts found that there was zero chance that Berisha Junior could succeed in a trial and this was appealed by his lawyers, all the way to the United States Supreme Court and was dismissed 8 to 1 or 7 to 2 maybe, I can't remember .
But the issue was that Berisha Junior, i.e. Shkëlzeni, claimed that he was not a public figure, so I should not touch his image, as a private person. Then my publisher did a survey with Albanians about how many people knew his name, it turned out to be 100%.
In America there is a law that if you are a public figure, when accusations are made you have to prove that the journalist knew or maliciously did not want to know the truth and still published it.
This to me was a ridiculous accusation because the book "Guns and Guns" has said nothing more than has been said with specificity and sharp accusation in other media. I have reported on very specific conversations that allegedly took place. Berisha Junior claimed that he did not do it. Well, I hope that SPAK will address these issues and I know that to really get to the bottom of it, it will need more witnesses, including the former Chief of General Staff, Mr. Luan Hoxha, who escaped to the United States at the time of the explosion in Gërdec and now lives in the Bronx. I would love to hear what he has to say.
- After a long time, what is your opinion about the involvement of Shkëlzen Berisha and the former prime minister in this event?
I stand by what I wrote in the book. In the book, relevant people who were involved in the history of Gërdec's weapons, said that they met with Berisha Junior, which he denies happened. There appears to be a substantial amount of evidence that there were people who were personally profiting from the sale of that amount of ammunition; there was money sent to bank accounts in Cyprus that simply disappeared, there was a Swiss arms dealer who disappeared without a trace. So there were many things that happened in that time or that world, which are never revealed. I feel that my book went as far as anyone has ever gone as far as the world of the arms trade is concerned. I don't know how much justice has been hindered, due to the fact that after all these years, the Berisha family is still denying these things, even though I don't know how much they are believed in Albania.
I stand by my book and I believe that the American judicial system was very supportive of the truth of my book as well. If you read the decisions of the courts in the United States, in my trial with Berisha Junior, they were not bothered by the idea if Mr. Berisha Junior was accused of corruption. There was no value, no sympathy for him, in this view. Nothing happened in America, except for a full and fair investigation. I would love to see this happen for you too. But I also live in the real world, as you say, and we just have to wait.
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