Ertis Shehu, former director of ASHK Fier and then of ASHK Rurale 2 in Tirana, was arrested after an investigation revealed a mechanism of legalization in violation of the law, falsification of documents and appropriation of state lands. Left from Fieri with the arrival of Lorena at the head of ASHK, Shehu returned within two weeks to Tirana, where he signed the first legalization decision that was to be bulldozed in the New Ring of Kashari. According to sources, his decisions disrupted the Edi Rama government’s bid for a strategic land in Fier, which was earmarked for foreign investors. After the dismissal of Shehu, Lorena Goxhobelli appointed Eni Sejdinaj to the same post, who has continued the same practices
The arrest of Ertis Shehu closes a suspicious chapter in Fier’s cadastre and opens a much larger file. The mechanism that started there was transplanted to Tirana and ended up affecting state land, public spaces and the plans of strategic investors that the government had placed at the top of the list. Ertis Shehu, who as the director of ASHK Fier, later appeared in some property files that the cadastre institution would like to forget, but that they did not leave him alone until the moment of his arrest.
With the arrival of Lorena Goxhobelli at the head of ASHK, Shehu was removed from Fieri and left without a job. It was a move that was read as an attempt to clean up a long-tainted sector, but it didn’t even last two weeks. Within that period, Shehu returned, not to Fier, but to Tirana, as the director of ASHK Rurale 2, a post that administered exactly the most sensitive legalization files in the capital. This quick return, contrary to any logic of a disciplinary procedure that had just started, raises the first serious question: who returned Shehu and why exactly to Tirana?
In the new position, Shehu wasted no time. He appointed his confidant Erion the Priest as the head of legalization and started a wave of decisions on additions and objects that came forward in violation of the law. Shehu was not deeply familiar with cadastre legislation, and this deficiency served him as an “advantage”: he allowed his people to pass files without being verified. Decisions were signed one after the other, without dwelling on technical details that would have revealed the inconsistencies.
Meanwhile, Fier’s case was the joke that led to his arrest. The land that Ertis Shehu had suspiciously registered was state property and, according to sources, was slated to go to a group of foreign strategic investors with government support. The plans for that land were ruined precisely by Shehu’s decisions, and this conflict was felt up to the general directorate of ASHK and above. There also began the operation for the additions that had occupied public spaces, an operation that would hit hard exactly those decisions that Shehu had signed in Tirana.
The first legalized extension that was canceled and destroyed in the New Ring, in Kashar, was the Shehu’s decision, a fact that can be verified on Edi Rama’s Facebook page. This decision turned Shehu’s files into evidence of a wider scheme. Lorena immediately took Shehu to the disciplinary committee and after a few weeks dismissed him from his position, removing him from ASHK Rurale 2. Shehu’s departure did not close the case but opened it up even more.
A short time later, the head of ASHK brought Eni Sejdinaj to the same post, who according to sources has followed in the footsteps of Shehu in Tirana, continuing to sign decisions for additions and legalizations affecting public spaces and sensitive areas in cooperation with her subordinate, Armando Skarra. The appointment of Sejdinaj reproduced the same pattern: a leader without proven expertise, placed in a strategic post, at a time when cadastre files continue to be a source of conflict and wealth. pamphlet
