13 Years on, Albania Blast Victims’ Families Still Seek Justice

Those charged included Albania's defence minister from 2005 to 2008, Fatmir Mediu, other senior defence ministry officials and members of the army's top brass. 

Initially filed with the Supreme Court, the case, apart from Mediu's, was then separated and sent to the Tirana District Court. 

And there it has been plagued by constant delays caused mainly by the absence of the defendants' lawyers.

In September 2009, meanwhile, the Supreme Court suspended the case against Mediu because he had won a seat in parliament in that year's June general election, and so gained parliamentary immunity. 

The village of Gerdec, 12 years after the deadly explosion. Photo: BIRN

That decision angered the victims' families. Mediu, head of the Republican Party and a close ally of former prime minister Sali Berisha, is Minister of Environment in the current government.

A Tirana court in 2012 then issued guilty verdicts to 19 of the other defendants, mainly managers of munitions demolition companies. 

Families of the victims voiced disappointment over what they called lenient sentences. And in the years that passed, the sentences for these other offenders were reduced.

However, in September this year, things changed. Albania's Special Court of Appeal against Organized Crime and Corruption reopened the case against Mediu, and on Thursday prosecutors officially charged him again over the massive, deadly blast.

Zamira Durda, one of the victims of the Gerdeci explosion. Photo: BIRN

Years spent at the doors of the courts

Zamira Durda, who lost her seven-year-old son in the blast, is determined not to lose hope for justice. 

She says that after judicial institutions ignored her for about 12 years, she...