Opposition leader Sali Berisha, who is expected to stand trial on corruption charges, has been released from house arrest by court order as protests against his detention escalate.
The 80-year-old was placed under house arrest in December 2023 after refusing to appear in court as part of a corruption investigation. In September, prosecutors charged him with using his influence during his first term as prime minister, between 2005-2009, to favor his son-in-law for a lucrative construction contract to privatize a state-owned sports complex.
The leaders of both major opposition parties, Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party and Ilir Meta of the Freedom Party, are accused of corruption. Both deny the charges and maintain that the head of the current government, , orchestrated the prosecutions against them.
The prime minister, for his part, assures that the prosecutions are not politically motivated and accuses the opposition of trying to seize power by force.
Anti-government demonstrations demanding a caretaker government
“The court has decided to revoke the house arrest measure for the defendant Sali Berisha,” Elsa Lita, a spokeswoman for the Special Court for Corruption and Organized Crime, told Reuters.
His house arrest has sparked frequent anti-government protests, including on Tuesday when police used tear gas and water cannon to break up a gathering of hundreds of opposition supporters who had blocked streets in Tirana, accusing the government of corruption and demanding replacing it with a transitional government of technocrats.
The opposition protests in Tirana against the ‘Rama’ government. Clashes and tensions between protesters and the police.
— Mili Xhani (@milixhani)
The protesters say they are taking part in a campaign of social disobedience against Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. The opposition in Albania has been organizing demonstrations almost every week, demanding the formation of a caretaker government until parliamentary elections in 2025.
Berisha, the first democratically elected Albanian president since the fall of communism in the 1990s, then led the government from 2005 to 2013. As of 2022, he has been banned from entering the US and the UK for his alleged involvement in corruption cases, charges which he denied.
In addition to house arrest, the court had barred the former head of government from communicating with anyone except “members of his family who live with him”.
However, the 80-year-old politician did not abide by these prohibitions in the slightest: every evening he spoke to a small crowd of supporters who gathered below his house to hear his anti-government speeches, and he also gave online press conferences every day.
