Former Albanian Prime Minister and President Sali Berisha said on Friday he had been banned from entering the UK for his involvement in organized crime and corruption, charges he denied.
On Thursday, the British Embassy in Tirana tweeted that
"this week the UK has taken action against several Albanians with links to crime and corruption"
, without naming them.
"Calumny"
Albania's first democratically elected president after the fall of communism and current leader of the main opposition party, Sali Berisha, 77, said he was on the list of people banned from entering the UK.
“I have been informed by letter that the Home Secretary has decided to bar my entry into the UK
,” he said, stressing that the document links him to
“organized crime and criminal groups
, an accusation he called a
“
slander”.
He accused his main political opponent, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, as well as US billionaire George Soros, of being behind the charges against him.
He had already been banned from entering the United States last year for
“corrupt acts while he was prime minister”.
A cardiologist by profession, he formed the Democratic Party (center right) in 1990 and two years later was elected the first non-Communist president of the Balkan nation, a position he held until 1997. In 2005, the party of Berisha had won the legislative elections.
He remained Prime Minister until 2013.