Former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu, a defendant in the “Gërdeci” case, told the Special Court on Tuesday that handling ammunition was an exclusive competence of the Armed Forces and not of the Defense Minister, A2 CNN reports. In the second session in a row where he expressed his disagreements over the answers of the experts of the military technical expertise act on the case against him, the former minister reiterated that SPAK was assigning him responsibilities that the position of minister did not have.
"For every government decision, there was a ministerial order and after every ministerial order, another order or instruction from the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, this is how it works in the Ministry of Defense," said Mediu.
Further, the former minister, accused of "abuse of office", said that the American company SAC in Gërdec was not only contracted for dismantling, but also for demilitarization, that is, for rendering the ammunition ineffective and harmless.
"SAC has carried out dismantling, said the former minister, without carrying out demilitarization, a fact that was pointed out to the company. There has been no fulfillment of obligations that the Armed Forces should have fulfilled."
Standing by the argument for separate and clear legal competencies between the Minister of Defense and the Armed Forces Headquarters, the former minister said that the Armed Forces had the duty to supervise Gërdec. According to the testimonies in the process, he said, senior officials of the Armed Forces have visited Gërdec several times, but have not implemented the obligations ordered by the Council of Ministers, which paved the way for the process. Several times during the session, the former minister claimed that the experts' answers were incorrect and that they had not been properly consulted with the relevant by-laws. (A2 Televizion)
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