REPUBLISHED

The SPAK cases that shook Albanian politics

Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 30 December 2025

2025 will be remembered as the year in which the Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) targeted senior officials and politicians, bringing to light an unimaginable scale of corruption.

The final year under chief prosecutor Altin Dumani, who was succeeded by Klodian Braho, brought high-profile investigations involving Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku and abuses at the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI).

These cases added to SPAK’s series of investigations into powerful politicians such as former Prime Minister Sali Berisha and former President Ilir Meta.

The indictment of Meta and Berisha

In May this year, former President Meta was formally indicted along with his former wife, Monika Kryemadhi. Under arrest since October 2024, he is accused of corruption, money laundering and concealment of assets.

The main case against him remains the CEZ–DIA business relationship, which is suspected of having been shaped by preferential treatment and legal changes promoted by Meta to serve private interests.

The former president has described the proceedings as an “investigative farce” and accused SPAK of providing a “political service” to the government.

Similarly, SPAK also formally indicted former Prime Minister Sali Berisha in May.

After around a year under house arrest, he was allowed to stand trial out of custody on charges of passive corruption, on suspicion that decisions he made as head of government favoured his son-in-law, Jamarbër Malltezi, in a construction project whose other partners were businessmen Fatmir Bektashi and Xhimi Begeja.

Berisha has openly contested the charge, calling it politically motivated and describing SPAK’s actions as serving the governing majority.

The language used by the two former statesmen, both influential in the opposition camp, has often been harsh, with severe epithets directed at former SPAK chief Altin Dumani.

The investigation and charges against Erion Veliaj

In February, SPAK arrested Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj. He is suspected of abuse of office, corruption and money laundering.

SPAK’s investigation focuses on assets and flows of money to a group of non-governmental organisations suspected of being backed by Veliaj’s wife, Ajola Xoxa.

SPAK suspects that Mayor Veliaj’s wealth was fed, in pursuit of clientelist interests, by businesspeople who benefited from construction permits and preferential treatment in public tenders.

Veliaj contested the charges, publicly attacking the prosecutors and judges who ordered his arrest. The case fuelled political tensions because it came just months before the general election on 11 May.

Prime Minister Rama took a harsh stance towards SPAK, accusing it of “abusive arrests”, “without trial” and “without evidence”.

In July, Veliaj was notified of the charges, with an accusation of bringing a mobile phone into his pretrial detention cell added to SPAK’s numerous allegations.

In September, the mayor was formally indicted. A few days later, Rama, who had won 83 seats in the May election, publicly said that former education and health minister Ogerta Manastirliu would succeed Veliaj as mayor.

This signalled the start of procedures to dismiss Veliaj and hold an early election for Tirana Municipality. The Socialist majority moved quickly through the procedures, steering the dismissal all the way to President Bajram Begaj, who issued his decree without delay.

However, Veliaj challenged this process in the Constitutional Court. On 3 November, it struck down the decisions as unconstitutional, allowing Veliaj to remain mayor even though he spent 10 of the 12 months of 2025 in a cell.

This process exposed tensions between the executive, local government and independent judicial institutions, highlighting the immense challenge of holding officials accountable when they have now made it normal to continue exercising their duties despite possible court proceedings against them.

The investigations and charges against Belinda Balluku

SPAK’s investigations did not stop with Veliaj. At the end of October, an investigation into Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku was also confirmed.

She did not resign, despite being formally indicted. On the grounds that she could obstruct the ongoing investigation, the Special Court granted SPAK’s requested measure to suspend Balluku from her duties as a government member, in which she also serves as Minister of Infrastructure and Energy.

SPAK suspects that Balluku, together with subordinates at the Albanian Road Authority (ARRSH), was involved in manipulating tenders and competition for the Great Ring Road and Llogara tunnel projects, contracts worth more than €200 million.

Thousands of pages of communications between her and her subordinates exposed a structured practice of unlawful favours and misuse of public funds, which is suspected of extending to other procedures as well.

Yet Prime Minister Rama did not dismiss her. On the contrary, he backed Balluku by challenging the suspension decision in the Constitutional Court, which on 12 December decided to reinstate her in office, further exposing the tension between the demand for accountability and the invocation of the independence of the branches of government as a pretext.

With this move, Rama appeared to establish a precedent in anticipation of a hypothetical case in which SPAK might also investigate him.

Faced with this situation, SPAK changed its approach. The Special Prosecution Office requested the lifting of Balluku’s immunity, signalling a change in the preventive measure sought: from suspension from office to arrest.

Legal experts told Citizens.al that the Balluku case illustrates the enormous challenge SPAK faces in investigating and bringing to justice an official with executive powers and powerful political connections.

Nevertheless, the deputy prime minister’s case called the government’s political stability seriously into question, as repeated protests in December demanded Prime Minister Rama’s resignation.

The AKSHI cases and links to organised crime

2025 also exposed what is likely one of the most corrupt schemes in the history of Albania’s transition: abuses involving the funds of the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), an agency that has budgeted around half a billion euros since 2017.

SPAK’s investigations have revealed staggering profits of tens of millions of euros for a group of contractors led by businessmen Ergys Agasi and Ermal Beqiri, and financial manipulation in projects involving the main funds of AKSHI, headed by Mirilda Karçanaj.

SPAK has raised suspicions of links to criminal groups and schemes to extract public money. Director Karçanaj, her subordinates at AKSHI and the main businesspeople involved, Agasi and Beqiri, face charges of involvement in a structured criminal group.

At least 19 AKSHI tenders, worth around €60 million, have come under investigation. They are suspected of having been designed with inflated line items so that the funds could be appropriated through predetermined competitions.

They affect important sectors such as electronic identification and signatures, medicine safety and food safety. Through these tenders, the companies under investigation also had access to police and prison security systems.

This was another scandal for the Rama government, which began its fourth term by publicly praising the appointment of an “artificially intelligent” minister, Diella, to guarantee the fight against corruption and safeguards in public tenders.

The Diella project on e-Albania was built through AKSHI tenders. These cases showed SPAK taking a more aggressive approach to high-level corruption in 2025.

A new standard of investigation has clearly been set, but major challenges remain. The court proceedings showed the difficulties facing the justice system in balancing accountability with respect for the independence of the branches of government and, above all, citizens’ trust.