From the run, former senior socialist official Arben Ahmetaj has made a strong denunciation, claiming that one of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s coordinators went all the way to Switzerland, where, according to him, he directly threatened him.
In the interview for “Çim Peka Live”, Ahmetaj confessed that he was initially warned by a former colleague to be careful, while later, according to him, the threat took on another dimension. He claims that a person connected to Rama had threatened his life.
“I’ll kill him with my own hand, I told the boss,” Ahmetaj said, referring to what the coordinator had told him.
The former deputy prime minister stated that, despite the pressures, he has no intention of backing down and that he is ready to face any legal developments. He also said that he will return to Albania to face justice, making it clear that his battle, according to him, is not over.
Excerpt from the interview:
Arben Ahmetaj: Because hundreds of people have taken me, including from the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group… “Brother, look at the risk, the threat…”.
I told an ex-friend of mine, I told him: “Don’t you dare answer the phone again.” I told him: “You have it, you have it, you have it.” I told him: “You have a habit of referring to things as ‘we don’t shave’… me,” I said, “it hurts. My family.”
One second, “my family hurts, I hurt myself, Albania hurts me, just as the Socialist Party hurts me.”
And I don’t consider myself brave at all. Neither brave nor…
I told one of his coordinators that when the head of the organization tells stories about his grandfather and grandmother, I have never mentioned his grandfather and grandmother.
But to one of his coordinators who came to threaten us, I said: I’ll kill him with my own hand, I told him, boss. I told him, fine. Calm down.
I told him, I told him an unspeakable word. I told him… “I’ll tell you a story about my grandfather,” I said to the head of the organization.
I told him, “My grandfather’s name is Zenel Ylli,” I told him. He was the second or third partisan of the Morrava Brigade, I told him, and he died in… in the ’90s or so, with a bullet here.
I told him, “Don’t make me look brave,” I told him. That I am the last brave man in Albania. But, I told him, “For myself, I will turn into steel.”
ÇIM PEKA: Mr. Ahmetaj, in your three appearances here, these people have reached out to me. What about the Albanians?
ARBEN AHMETAJ: Of course, I share my case, Mr. Peka, for two reasons. To clarify my position in relation to what has been put to me.
I will say later, I did not make the tender, I was not part of the incinerators, I was not involved in the evaluation or the determination. I was not the prime minister.
Millonai even reminded me that I wasn’t even present at the government’s decision, that I don’t know where… where I could have been. I wasn’t.
My employees, because I don’t want to forget them, my employees, none of them have been found to have an email, official or unofficial, with incinerators.
Those incinerator boys were made a scapegoat by this scoundrel. He lied to them, deceived them, manipulated them as he usually does, robbed them, and put them in prison or exiled them.
And they believed it, they believed it like I believed it in 2013. And until 2018.
Yes, definitely. Here we are in relation to my case. Here we are. In relation to your case…
And I’m closing, I said… I share this with the public. Every time we meet together for an interview, for two reasons. For two essential reasons.
One, to show myself, that is, my whole thing, with documents and facts. They have fabricated it inside… they have fabricated it inside. They have a letter from 2019…
My case is a phenomenon in which segments of the justice system, segments of SPAK, have been turned into meat grinders in favor of the head of the organization and their careers.