The leader of the Albanian opposition, Sali Berisha, has been released from house arrest, an Albanian court ruled today, while the country’s former president and former prime minister awaits trial on corruption charges against him as protests against his detention escalate.

Berisha, 80, was placed under house arrest in December 2023 for refusing to appear in court as part of a corruption investigation. In September prosecutors had charged him with using his influence in his first term as prime minister between 2005-2009 to favour his son-in-law for a lucrative construction contract by privatising a state-owned sports complex.

Berisha, who is the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, denies the charges and says they are part of a political vendetta against him by the ruling party and accuses the leader of the current government, Edi Rama, of being the source of the persecution.

“The court decided to revoke the house arrest measure for the accused Sali Berisha,” Elsa Lita, a spokeswoman for the Special Court for Corruption and Organised Crime, told Reuters.

His house arrest sparked regular anti-government protests, including yesterday (Tuesday) when police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a gathering of hundreds of opposition supporters who had blocked off streets in Tirana, accusing the government of corruption and calling for its replacement with a transitional government of technocrats.

The protesters say they are participating in a campaign of social disobedience against Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. The opposition in Albania has been staging rallies almost every week demanding the formation of a caretaker government until parliamentary elections in 2025.

The leaders of the two largest opposition parties, Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party and Ilir Mehta of the Freedom Party, are accused of corruption. Both deny the charges and say Rama orchestrated the prosecutions against them.

For his part, the prime minister assures that the prosecutions are not politically motivated and accuses the opposition of trying to seize power by force.

The first democratically elected Albanian president since the fall of communism in the 1990s, Berisha subsequently led the government from 2005 to 2013. Since 2022, he has been banned from entering the United States and the United Kingdom because of his alleged involvement in corruption cases, charges he has denied.

In addition to house arrest, the court had barred the former chief executive from communicating with anyone except “family members living with him.”

However, Sali Berisha did not observe these prohibitions: every afternoon he spoke to a small crowd of supporters who gathered under his building to listen to his anti-government speeches, and he also held daily online press conferences.

The first democratically elected Albanian president since the fall of communism in the 1990s, Berisha subsequently led the government from 2005 to 2013.