Flash News

Drenova prison police officer arrested for bringing drugs and illegal items into cell

Lavrov: NATO is risking self-destruction with new military budget

Kurti and Vučić "face off" tomorrow in Skopje

Construction worker dies after falling from scaffolding in Berat

The prosecution sends two Korça Municipality officials to trial

Ditari i Opozitës

"Berisha's non-grata should be reviewed"/ Former senior US official: He was punished without evidence!

Politiko 2025-06-30 17:23:34

"Berisha's non-grata should be reviewed"/ Former senior US

Former ambassador and career diplomat at the State Department, Jonathan Moore, commented this Monday on the sanctions imposed against the leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha.

In an interview with A2CNN, Moore stated that Berisha's non grata status was established without concrete evidence, but based on rumors, forwarded from the US embassy in Tirana to Washington.

" This legislation that created this type of sanction was established during the first Trump administration in 2018 and was an attempt to find a more efficient way to impose sanctions on people accused of corruption ," Moore said.

He believes that the program for declaring politicians "non grata" has many flaws and should be reviewed.

" Unfortunately, in my personal opinion, there have been several key problems with this legislation. The first is precisely the burden of proof. These sanctions require facts, details, legal arguments and financial transactions that are blocked both by the US, but also through the US. These sanctions, through the State Department, introduced in 2018, seem to be supported mainly by allegations of corruption. So, the first person told the second person, who told the embassy that someone is corrupt. Then, there was also a rush to put several people under sanctions. Mr. Berisha is not the only one in Albania and the subject of these sanctions ," Moore said.

" I think there is a serious question that needs to be raised about the validity of the sanctions and the content of the 'evidence'. Since this happened in 2018 and we are now 7 years behind and there are many people in the world who are on that list who have never been investigated. And there are serious questions raised about the validity of the sanctions. Of course they can be challenged and a second problem with this legislation is that there is no objection process or to see if someone has made a positive contribution to the interests of the United States ," he continued.

Ambassador Moore states that the new Albanian parliament now has the power to intervene in Washington regarding the lifting of the "non-women's ban" for Berisha.

Latest news