Albanians Question Benefit of US Ban on Berisha

"With this designation, I am reaffirming the need for accountability and transparency in Albania's democratic institutions, government processes, and the actions of Albanian public officials," Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the press release.

At his first press conference in years, last Thursday, Berisha declared that he planned to sue Blinken for defamation - but in a French court and through a French lawyer, Jean-Yves Leborgne.

Unimpressed, the US Ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim, last Friday said Albania was moving forward and that "the days of impunity must end".

Designating foreign politicians as corrupt is a relatively new policy tool of the US. It was first used in 2018 against another Albanian, former prosecutor general Adriatik Llalla.

Berisha is apparently the most important politician to be treated in this way. The stated motive for his "designation" as "corrupt" and the ban on his entry to the US, is to strengthen Albania's fight against corruption.

However, some believe that by singling out Berisha, and leaving other allegedly corrupt politicians aside, the US is merely helping current Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama and damaging the Berisha's centre-right opposition Democratic Party, which is already weakened - while the Rama government enjoys apparently unlimited power, and prosecutors have yet to show they have guts to tackle it.

Former Albania PM and President Sali Berisha at a press conference in Tirana, Albania on Thursday, 20 May 2020, following his designation by US as non grata due to his involvement in "gross corruption". Photo: LSA

It has also been alleged that the US took this step in pursuit of the old formula of choosing stability over values.

Fred Abrahams, a...