TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Former Albanian President Ilir Meta was formally charged on Tuesday with corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and hiding property from authorities, his lawyer said.
The charges were communicated to Meta in a 192-page report from anti-corruption prosecutors, lawyer Kujtim Cakrani told journalists. The prosecutors belong to the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime, or SPAK, which handles cases involving senior political and state officials.
Meta, the 56-year-old founder of the leftist Freedom Party, was arrested in October.
Meta wrote on his Facebook page that "I can hardly wait for the start of the trial which will be public and will show to the world" that SPAK is a puppet of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Meta also said that he considers the agency to be Rama’s “anti-opposition task force.”
Rama’s governing Socialist Party achieved a landslide win in the May 11 parliamentary election, getting 83 seats in the 140-seat parliament.
Meta, who was president from 2017-2022, has been an outspoken critic of Rama and has denounced his case as a politically motivated attack on an opposition leader.
Meta faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Meta’s former spouse, Monika Kryemadhi, a lawmaker and former leader of the Freedom Party, also is accused of the same crimes. Two other people connected to the case have been accused of money laundering and corruption.
Meta has held virtually all senior posts in post-communist Albania, starting as a lawmaker. He eventually became foreign minister, minister of economy, trade and energy, deputy prime minister, prime minister, parliamentary speaker and president.
Prosecutors have said that when he was minister of economy, trade and energy, Meta had abused his authority to influence various businesses in which he and Kryemadhi had earned considerable amounts of money.
Meta also has failed to account for around $460,000 (404,000 euros) he had used for lobbying in the United States.
Both Meta and Kryemadhi also are accused of buying property with illegally obtained money, or not declaring their personal health expenses.
Albania, which has started full membership negotiations with the European Union, has been plagued in its post-communist era with corruption that has marred its democratic, economic and social development.
Judicial institutions created with the support of the EU and the United States have launched several investigations into former senior government officials allegedly involved in corruption.
Sali Berisha, a former prime minister and president and now a lawmaker and leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is also accused of corruption and is waiting for his trial to begin.
FILE - The then Albanian president Ilir Meta flashes victory sign as he casts his vote during parliamentary elections in capital Tirana, Albania on Sunday, April 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu, File)
FILE - The then Albanian President Ilir Meta speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in Tirana, Albania, on April 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina, File)
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man who had a relationship with a Brazilian au pair is going to trial Monday in what prosecutors say was an elaborate double-murder scheme to frame another man in the stabbing of his wife.
Brendan Banfield is charged with aggravated murder in the February 2023 killings of Christine Banfield and Joseph Ryan at the Banfields' home in northern Virginia. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães, the family’s au pair, were with the wife and Ryan on the morning the victims were killed in the primary bedroom of the Banfield home, court records say. Authorities have said on that day, Banfield and Magalhães told officials they saw Ryan, a stranger, stabbing the wife after he entered the house. Then they each shot the intruder, Banfield and Magalhães said at the time.
Prosecutors have painted a different picture, arguing that Brendan Banfield and Magalhães lured Ryan to the house and staged it to look like he and the au pair shot a predator in defense. Officials have said Banfield and Magalhães had a romantic affair beginning the year before the killings.
Both the au pair and husband were arrested between 2023 and 2024 and initially handed murder charges in the case. In 2024, Magalhães pleaded guilty to a downgraded manslaughter charge after giving a statement to officials confirming parts of their theory.
In that statement, Magalhães said she and Brendan Banfield created an account in his wife’s name on a social media platform for people interested in sexual fetishes. There, Ryan connected with the account in Christine Banfield’s name, and the users made plans to meet on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023, for a sexual encounter that would involve a knife, authorities said based on the statement from Magalhães.
Prosecutor Eric Clingan said last year that the au pair's statement helped the state solidify its theory ahead of trial.
“With 12 different homicide detectives, there were 24 different theories,” Clingan said. “Now, one theory.”
Not all officials investigating the case have believed Banfield and Magalhães catfished Ryan.
Brendan Miller, a former digital forensic examiner with the Fairfax County Police Department, testified last year that he analyzed dozens of devices and concluded Christine Banfield had connected with Ryan herself through the social networking platform.
An evidence analysis team at the University of Alabama peer-reviewed and affirmed Miller’s digital forensic findings, according to evidence submitted to the court.
Miller was transferred out of the department’s digital forensics unit in late 2024, though a former Fairfax County commander testified the reassignment was not punitive or disciplinary.
John Carroll, Banfield's attorney, argued that Millers' transfer was directly tethered to the case. He also said in court that Fairfax County police reassigned the case’s lead detective after that man had pushed back on the top brass’ catfishing theory.
“It is a theory in search of facts rather than a series of facts supporting a theory,” Carroll said.
Banfield, whose daughter was at the house on the morning of the killings, is also charged with child abuse and felony child cruelty in connection with the case. He will also face those charges during the aggravated murder trial.
FILE - This image provided by the Fairfax County Police Department and taken on Oct. 13, 2023, was submitted as evidence in the murder case against Brendan Banfield shows a framed photo of Banfield and Juliana Peres Magalhães on his bedside table in Herndon, Va. (Fairfax County Police Department via AP, File)
