Gerdeci at Court of Appeal

The Former Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Albania, Luan Hoxha, who was found guilty and sentenced by the Court of First Degree to six years in prison has appealed through his lawyer, Brahim Lahi, since he is staying with his family in America.

He claims to be not guilty and that the court has committed several procedural violations, such as the fact that the court has not notified him for any of the sessions, while they had the obligation to summon him for every session, regardless the fact that he was represented by a lawyer.

“They summoned me only for one session, two years after the tragedy, when I gave my declarations”, General Hoxha declared on the appeal. To this appeal he has attached the Strasbourg decisions for cases when the defendant is not summoned in session, or for orienting the defense lawyer during the trial.

The former director of MEICO, Ylli Pinari, also claimed to be not guilty, saying that he and his lawyer have the right to present additional arguments until the First Degree Court presents the arguments.

“Based on the arguments that we have presented during the trial at the Court of Tirana, we ask the Court of Appeal to partially repeal the verdict against me, as regards the accusations for which I have been considered guilty, while the decision for document falsification and the power abuse in cooperation should stay in effect”, Pinari declared.

Delijorgji and Minxolli have also appealed for being not guilty with the same arguments that they presented at the Court of First Degree. Sokol Ngjeci followed the same way. His lawyer declared for Top Channel that his client had no directing duties at Gerdec. The Prosecution confirmed that they have filed their request on Tuesday, on which they support the requests for three life imprisonments and for rejecting the verdict that found not guilty 10 of the defendants.

Top Channel