Czech police shelve case of CEZ corruption in Albania - press

Prague, July 17 (CTK) - The Czech police have shelved the CEZ state-controlled energy utility's suspected corruption in Albania after the Albanian court halted it in late January, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today, referring to the state attorney supervising the case.

The case concerns a transaction from 2009, in which CEZ sent an equivalent of 180 million crowns to Albania to the private account of Kosovo lobbyist Nue Kalaj. The Albanian authorities had the suspicion that this sum might have been used to bribe local politicians and officials at the time when CEZ took control of the Albanian energy distributor.

No one has been accused in the Czech Republic.

"The police body has decided to shelve the matter," the daily cites state attorney Boris Havel who was supervising the case.

The Czech police launched the investigation three years ago in reaction to a criminal complaint the Czech Financial Analytical Squad filed based on the information it received from its Albanian counterpart.

The Albanian investigation started after then PM Sali Berisha lost elections in 2013. The new government decided to look into the privatisation of the energy distributor, while Berisha claimed that the investigation was politically motivated.

The Tirana court ruled in late January that no corruption had been proven in this case. Yet the Albanian investigators failed to question Kalaj since he had disappeared in the meantime.

Lobbyist Kalaj said he had prepared conditions for CEZ's negotiations in Albania. Several years ago, he told the Albanian server Panorama that he had worked for CEZ based on "contractual and legal relations."

According to the Albanian media, however, he was a very close acquaintance of the then PM Berisha's son. Kalaj denied having such ties.

CEZ entered Albania in 2009 when it bought a 76-percent stake in the local energy distributor Shperndarje for about 102 million euros (2.75 billion crowns). In January 2013, however, the Albanian regulation authority stripped CEZ of the licence, arguing that CEZ failed to ensure the import of electric energy and invest money in the power grid. The authority installed a state administrator in the management of the company, by which CEZ lost control of it.

CEZ reacted by provoking an arbitration against Albania. CEZ terminated the proceedings in 2014 based on an agreement on compensation, according to which it would receive 100 million euros, corresponding to its initial investment, in annual instalments. CEZ withdrew from Albania then.

($1=23.385 crowns)

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