Former Anti-Communist Albanian President Sali Berisha Banned From U.K., Says Soros Behind False Accusations

Sali Berisha, leader of Albania’s opposition, at a press conference in Tirana on July 22. Photo: LSA

Albania’s former prime minister and de facto leader of the opposition, Sali Berisha, told a press conference on Friday that he is one of several foreign officials who has been banned from entering Britain because of their alleged involvement in corruption.

Berisha, who was also sanctioned last year by the US government for “involvement in significant corruption”, claimed that the UK decision was based on false claims.

He blamed US billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama “for sponsoring and lobbying” for both decisions to blacklist him.

He insisted that the decisions were “based on the lies and corrupt lobbying of Edi Rama and the multibillionaire George Soros”.

Berisha said that a letter he received from the British Home Secretary states that he has been sanctioned due to his “clear connections with organised crime” and for “corruption and enrichment”.

“They mention the case of my election advisor Damir Fazllic, who, according to their assessment, I protected when there have been incriminatory revelations about him,” Berisha said, referring to what is written in the letter.

Fazlic, a Bosnian citizen, first became a public figure in Albania in 2005 as a political advisor at the general elections that Berisha won.

During the following years, he was involved in shady deals with Berisha’s government and his family members. An investigation in Albania over a suspected money-laundering scheme involving the law office of the daughter of Berisha in 2008 ended inconclusively, while two US businessmen claimed they had handed Fazlic $1 million as a donation for the Democratic Party in 2006, in exchange for a lucrative telecoms contract.

Berisha fell from power in 2013 and resigned as Democratic Party chairman soon afterwards. In 2021, he was banned from entering the US.

His former protégé in the Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, then decided to expel him from the party. Berisha fought back and managed to get control over most of the party’s base and control of its headquarters but not the majority of the its parliamentarians.

He has been re-elected chairman of the Democratic Party but the legality of the process is being disputed in the courts.


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