Albania's Freedom Party leader and former president Ilir Meta was arrested on Monday on corruption charges, prosectors announced. 

The Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) issued a statement following Meta’s arrest, outlining the charges against him. According to SPAK, Meta and other individuals, including his former wife Monika Kryemadhi, are accused of engaging in illegal financial activities and failing to declare significant assets.

Kryemadhi, a lawmaker and former leader of the Freedom Party while Meta stepped aside to serve as Albania’s president, is facing the same charges. 

“For the period 2009-2010, by the persons under investigation, IM [Meta], MK [Kryemadhi], and FK, a duplex apartment located in the area known as the ‘former block,’ declared as financed with a bank loan, was purchased,” SPAK said in the statement. The investigation revealed that a total of €645,000 used for the purchase of the duplex was likely obtained through illegal activities, with the bank loan serving as a cover for introducing the funds into the banking system.

The prosecution also detailed allegations of undeclared medical expenses amounting to over €106,000, paid largely in cash between 2013 and 2019. “The entities IM and MK are suspected of having committed the criminal offence of ‘Refusal to declare, non-declaration, concealment, and false declaration of assets,’” SPAK added.

Meta was taken into custody on October 21 by the National Investigation Bureau in the capital, Tirana, according to local media reports. 

Television footage showed plainclothes officers forcibly removing Meta from his vehicle after he returned from neighbouring Kosovo, ahead of a planned news conference.

Police said the use of force was necessary after the former president refused to comply with orders to exit his car and reportedly used offensive language towards officers and judicial officials.

Meta served as president from 2017 to 2022. His Freedom Party, formerly the Socialist League for Integration (LSI), was previously the junior partner of Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialist Party. 

However, the two parted ways acrimoniously, and Meta became an outspoken critic of Rama's government, frequently accusing it of corruption and the consolidation of power. 

Corruption has long plagued Albania, hampering its democratic development and European Union membership ambitions. Over recent years, with the support of the EU and the United States, Albania has established judicial bodies like SPAK to investigate high-level corruption. 

Several former senior officials, including former prime minister president, and current Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha, are also facing charges. Berisha remains under house arrest as he awaits trial.

Following the arrest, Freedom Party’s secretary-general, Tedi Blushi, denounced the actions as politically motivated. 

“Today, the criminal state has crossed all limits with the unacceptable act of taking hostage the President of Albania, Ilir Meta! This is not just an attack on the Freedom Party, but a serious blow to the country’s sovereignty,” Blushi wrote in a Facebook post. He vowed that the party would “continue the battle to the end to overthrow this criminal regime.”

Meta has previously been under investigation for allegedly engaging in illegal lobbying activities in the United States and concealing personal assets.