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BIRN: Veliaj prepaid $300,000 to an American law firm for legal services

Politiko 2025-03-25 17:39:29

BIRN: Veliaj prepaid $300,000 to an American law firm for legal services

Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, who is in prison custody on charges of creating a corrupt scheme between his wife's companies and a group of businessmen close to him, has prepaid $300,000 to an American law firm for legal services.

The contract with the "Kasowitz Benson Torres" studio signed by the mayor and his brother Arbër Veliaj has been published on the official website of the US Department of Justice and provides for legal services in the form of legal, media and strategic advice for the judicial process.

The firm's lawyers who will assist Veliaj in this process have an hourly rate ranging from 500 USD to 1950 USD.

According to the contract, this studio will undertake, in addition to legal consultancy, lobbying with the US Department of State and other branches of the US government, and public relations services regarding the Albanian government and Albanian legislation.

A representative of the law firm contracted by Veliaj came to Tirana in early March during the Appeal hearing for the security measure, but he was not allowed to attend the hearing due to legal prohibitions provided for by Albanian legislation.

Veliaj, a close associate of Prime Minister Edi Rama and mayor of Tirana since 2015, was arrested by SPAK on February 10. The Special Prosecution Office, SPAK, says he is suspected of having benefited through his immediate family members or personally, from payments or other benefits from various businessmen on nine occasions.

Veliaj denies the accusations and claims that he is the target of an unfair prosecution.

After his arrest, Veliaj attacked the prosecutor in the case, Ols Dado, and judge Erion Bani through several Facebook posts, claiming political persecution. Veliaj also published a transcript with false content, which was assessed as an attempt to challenge justice and discredit the prosecutor's figure, through falsified data, which was distributed by the media close to him.

Also, during the session to assess the security measures, hundreds of Veliaj's supporters protested against his detention. According to the then-reports of the Special Court of First Instance and SPAK, the protesters had seriously endangered the lives and health of judges, prosecutors and employees of the administrations of these institutions, when they were dismissed from work. Reporter.al

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