Albanian Minister of Finance Anila Denaj said the government will not pay the fine to Francesco Becchetti until a final decision has been ruled.
In 2019, the Court of International Dispute Resolution (ICSID) at the World Bank ruled that the government must pay EUR 110 million. While the ruling has not been made public, this was announced by Becchetti himself.
The conflict between the government and Becchetti started after the 2013 parliamentary elections.
After he came to power, Prime Minister Rama canceled two concessions of Becchetti from the period of Prime Minister Fatos Nano, which had been renegotiated during the government of Sali Berisha: one for the construction and operation of the hydropower plant in Kalivaç, and one for the construction and operation of a recycling plant.
Meanwhile, in 2015, the Office of the General Prosecutor investigated Becchetti for tax evasion. Initally, the accusations related to tax evasion, forgery of documents, and money laundering to the amount of €39 million, but these were later reduced to tax evasion.
On June 5, the Tirana District Court order the freezing of all Becchetti’s assets, including the companies Energji, Cable System, 400KV, and Fuqi. The blockade also resulted in the closure of his media company AgonSet and the dismissal of about 500 employees of Agon Channel.
On June 8, an international arrest warrant was issued for Becchetti for tax evasion and fraud.
Becchetti, as well as a number of political commentators, qualified the investigation as an intentional attack of the Rama government, because of Agon Channel’s critical stance toward the government.
On June 29, 2015, Becchetti filed a request to institute arbitration proceedings against the Albanian state at the ICSID.
Failed extradition request
In November 2015, Becchetti was arrested in London, and the Albanian government sought his extradition.
In July 2016, however, the Westminster Magistrates Court decided against the extradition, calling the government’s evidence “totally misleading.”
The court had found that the Albanian government had made, on purpose, false statements in the extradition request, including misleading information regarding Albanian legislation. It qualified the attempts of the Albanian government to be a “manipulation and usurpation” of the juridical process. For these reasons it voted against the extradition.
The Albanian government has appealed the decision and have said they will not pay until that process has reached a conclusion.
Denaj said:
“Once all the courts decide and when it’s decided they will be paid, they will be paid. Fines are not the right word, they are obligations. The state budget will pay them,” she said.
Becchetti has demanded the confiscation of Albanian assets in Austria until the liquidation obligation is paid by the Albanian state.
