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OP-ED

When everyone around Rama falls, who is left?

Politiko 2026-01-12 17:52:03
When everyone around Rama falls, who is left?

Alfred Lela

Even though the SPAK investigation into the AKShI corruption scheme by itself raises all kinds of concerning questions concerning the quality and stability of the core IT infrastructure systems of Albania, which were provided by companies that were not necessarily the best qualified to do so, it also significantly increases the exposure of the Prime Minister himself.

Both the indictment of Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj and Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Belinda Balluku have been a major hit to his inner circle, and there continues to be a considerable risk that either one at some point may choose to turn over evidence against Rama to reduce their sentence, if they have not already done so.

An additional, serious risk may lie in the information that Agasi, who is still at large, has at his disposal. From the SPAK investigation, we learn – nearly as an afterthought – that Agasi had previously been in contact with former Socialist MP Alqi Bllako, who has been convicted in the context of the corruption scandal with the Tirana waste incinerator. The dossier contains text messages between Agasi and Bllako in which the former threatens “to send some guys over” to former Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Damian Gjiknuri because of alleged obstruction of his criminal activities.

Similarly, it provides tentative evidence of Agasi’s links with Çopja criminal group, which was recently successfully targeted by SPAK. In other words, Agasi emerges from the dossier as a figure interconnecting several of the large corruption and mafia cases that the investigations of the BKH and SPAK have brought to light in recent years, giving some credence to former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmetaj’s claim during a RAI3 interview last year that Agasi is the “coordinator of all [criminal] groups” on behalf of Prime Minister Rama.

The AKShI corruption dossier only contains a fraction of the total amount of information that SPAK has gathered from searching the premises of Agasi’s company. In particular, the reportedly 130 video recordings he made in his office are likely to be a veritable goldmine for further investigations and pose a tangible risk to the upper echelons of the government, Socialist Party, and business and criminal milieus of Albania.

With multiple (former) Socialist ministers and mayors in pretrial detention or imprisoned, and the directors of several other key institutions such as the Albanian Road Authority (ARrSh), the Albanian Power Corporation (KESh), and now AKShI all under house arrest, at some point, you run out of high officials to indict and convict.

Some time in the near future, perhaps after a few more ministers have presented themselves to SPAK for questioning and arrest, the only reasonable person left for SPAK to indict is the one person who ought to be eventually held accountable for this disastrous state of affairs: the Prime Minister himself.

Indeed, all of the recent SPAK investigations have expanded its attack surface on the highest office of the country. The EU accession process – for now – holds Rama in check with regard to any legal changes that might jeopardize SPAK’s capabilities in this regard, but as the net tightens, more and more will come to depend on that diplomatic pressure alone.

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