A corruption scandal linked to the powerful DUI leader Ali Ahmeti received another turn. The Soravia scandal involves Ahmeti’s nephew, Drin Ahmeti, who was gifted a 39 percent share in the Soravia business center in downtown Skopje, worth tens of millions of euros, with no investment on his part except for his “knowledge and expertise”.

At the time, Drin Ahmeti insisted that he is buying the center from its Austrian owner together with a bank in Albania which will invest six million EUR. But Kod, the investigative outfit of Telma television, reports that the bank Ahmeti was citing did not pay the six million EUR. Instead, an unnamed Macedonian – Albanian businessman from the US over the summer paid three million EUR to the center owner. So far this is the only payment made for the purchase of Soravia. Kod did not name the businessman, other than to inform that he is a former funder of the UCK – the Albanian paramilitary group where Ahmeti was a commander in Kosovo and key commander during the civil war he started in Macedonia in 2001.

Kod turned to state prosecutors to see how advanced is their corruption investigation in Ahmeti’s obvious corruption deal. But the case is being investigated by recently appointed special prosecutor Islam Abazi who is a close confidant of Ahmeti and originates from his native village, meaning that any investigation into the case is unlikely to get far.