TIRANA (Reuters) -A court in Albania removed Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku from office on Thursday after she was indicted by prosecutors over her alleged role in selecting a company to build a government-financed tunnel, the court said in a statement.
There was no immediate reaction from Balluku. However, during a parliamentary session on Wednesday, she referred to the accusations as “mudslinging, insinuations, half-truths and lies”, and said she would fully cooperate with the judiciary.
Balluku, who also served as Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, is a close ally of the country’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who earlier this year secured his fourth consecutive mandate.
The Special Court tasked with fighting corruption and organized crime did not give more information in its ruling, “given that such measures are of a confidential nature”.
On October 31, the Special Prosecutor’s Office, SPAK, said it had indicted Balluku for the criminal offence of violating the equality of participants in a tender or public auction.
The allegations relate to the construction of a 5.9-kilometre (3.7-mile) tunnel in the southern part of Albania at a cost of approximately 190 million euros.
The indictment, seen by Reuters, stated that Balluku, in her capacity as infrastructure minister, improperly influenced the decision in favour of the winning company. The indictment further alleged that she did so in collaboration with five other members of the deciding commission.
Albania aims to join the European Union by 2030, but the wealthy bloc is demanding the country do more to fight crime and corruption.
(Reporting by Florion Goga, writing by Fatos Bytyci, Editing by Alex Richardson)
