After a decade of threats and court process failures, a Saudi company representative hired a suspect for fines Emiljano Shullazi to solve once and for all problems with the mortgage and rivals.
Ylvi Beqja, a Saudi Brothers Commercial Company representative in Albania, was in the whirlwind of public debate following the arrest of Emiliano Shottzit – a prominent person of the crime world, while the prosecution considers it a key witness to clear the 20th pass cent of the former Volga hotel in the wallet of the arrested.
Once again from Saudi Arabia, Beqja has not yet testified at the prosecution but appears calm in one of Tirana’s many cafés.
“The donation was the least I could do,” Beqja told BIRN.
“Shulzai saved me from the trouble after years of confronting me with unfair judicial threats and processes.”
Over the last decade, the ownership of the former Volta hotel had become the main problem of Ylvi Beqes – the ruined building stretches over a vast area of 3426 square meters in one of the most coveted places in the center of Durres.
Reclaimed by the Property Restitution Commission and sold to the Arabian company for 800,000 euros in 1994, the property subsequently became the subject of a long litigation that still continues.
The documents provided by BIRN indicate that the Arab company Saudi Brothers Commercial Company, owned by Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Nowaiser, bought this property from Agim Sula, Alije Fortuz’s proxy for the fall of 1994. The company was planning to build a casino in center of Durres at that time, but failed to get permission, while the 1997 riots left Albania.
For years, the former hotel was downgraded, but a new property contender appeared in Durres in 2002. Zanmir Hasa, Alije Fortuz’s adopted son, approached the Durrës court with a lawsuit against the administrator the Arab company and Agim Sulas, claiming that the lawsuit used in 1994 for the sale of the property was illegal.
The lawsuit brought a chain of judicial proceedings between the representatives of the Arab companies and Zanmir Hasas, while many conflicts were generated over the years between the parties.
Ylvi Beqja, appointed as administrator of Saudi Brothers Commercial Company in 2009, told BIRN that he was convinced that the right was on their side and that he had been trying for years to find it at the court and prosecution doors, but had failed.
In the interview for BIRN, Beqja admitted that he was addressing Emiljano Shottali’s solution after being hopeless. He claims he was under constant threat to his and his son’s life, as he encounters insurmountable obstacles to registering property on the mortgage.
After agreeing with the Shulzin, Beqja says “the threats were stopped, the obstacles quashed and I returned the previous comfort.”
Emiljano Shullazi was arrested on November 19 by order of the Prosecutor’s Office, and was accompanied by police as suspected of threatening the candidate for Rector of the University of Tirana, Mynyr Koni. The prosecution accused him of fines against various businesses, terrorist threats and crimes committed within the structured criminal group.
Among the issues under investigation is the case of the former Volga hotel, where Emiljano Shullazi became owner of 20 percent of the property through a donation contract signed by Ylvi Beqja. The prosecution suspects that the Saudi Brother Brother “has been forced to give 20 percent of Shullazit property. Ylvi Beqja testifies to the contrary.
In December 2014, Beqja as Saudi Brothers’ administrator gave Emiljano Shullazi “in gratitude” to 749 square meters of land within the area where the former Vollga hotel is located, according to the documents BIRN has available.
However, the act of donation came at the end of a negotiation process, agreement, and outcome-which Shullazi turns out to have carried out in favor of the Arab company before being rewarded.
Execution Office “Shullazi”
Contract Facsimiles nidis Ylvi Beqja and Emiljano Shullazit Photo Credit: BIRN
Over the last decade, the former Volga Hotel has turned into a trophy of conflict between the two sides; over 15 litigation with different facilities have been conducted in all three levels of the judiciary.
In addition to trials, several criminal reports have been filed with the prosecutor for forgery of property acts or threats.
The documents provided by BIRN show that the decisions were contradictory and instead of resolving the conflict, they pushed the parties to seek the solution to the strong groups.
Ylvi Beqja told BIRN that Emiljano Shullaz had known in the early 90s as a neighborhood boy and that “he had been in contact with him”. He decided to meet again in August 2013, at which time the trials were extinguished endlessly, while people interested in building on the site of the former Volga hotel sought to sign an investment contract to the detriment of the company he represented.
To make the meeting, Beqja returned to the old house on the “Congress of Lushnja” street, where Shullazi resides.
“I met Milin and explained to her that I had, with justice and with threats. He listened to me and took over to help me, as my cause was considered very serious, “Beqja says.
The documents provided by BIRN indicate that the pact made in August 2013 was not just “an honor among old friends”. Beqja and Shullazi did not believe the words and went to the notary to sign 4 paper deals with clear obligations and obligations for each party. In the contract, Beqa is presented as a “subscriber” and Shullazi as a “subscriber”.
Beqja says he has obtained the consent of the company owner and has signed “with free will”.
The agreement BIRN has dated August 18, 2014, titled “Settlement of the service order relationship with remuneration that the client will perform during legal proceedings”.
The agreement charges Shullazit two duties: obtaining a certificate of ownership on behalf of Saudi Brothers Commercial Company from the Durres estate registration office and resolving the ownership dispute between the company and citizen Zanmir Hasa.
Under the agreement, if Shulzi fulfills his obligations, he will be rewarded with 20 percent of the value of the object.
“In the full fulfillment of the obligations assumed by him in this contract, the client will receive 20% of the value of the object, divided into 10% for point 1 in the value of 700,000 euros and 10% for the realization of the obligation taken from the commissioned in point 2, “the contract says.
In the agreement signed before the notary, Shullazi undertakes to “carry out the necessary actions with its resources, means and expenses”.
The notarial contract between Ylvi Beqes and Emiljano Shullazi was signed several months after the district court in Durrës had taken a decision in favor of Saudi Brothers Company. On February 18, 2013, the court decision orders the Durrës mortgage to recognize as owner of the land and two buildings in the center of Durres the Saudi Brothers company.
However, this decision was executed only after the entry of Emiljano Shullazi into the game. In November 2014, the Durrës mortgage transferred the ownership of “Saudi Brothers”. Immediately after the registration of the property, on November 13, Ylvi Beqja in sells Fejzi Kodra the surface of 1749 square meters for 671 thousand euros.
On 9 December 2014, Beqja signed the final contract with Emiljano Shullazin by giving him the remaining property, in return for the services he had received.
“I’m happy to sign this contract. Life in my family had become a hell of threats, phone calls and fines before it, “Beqja justified.
Serial of litigation
Built as one of the most luxurious hotels of the time in 1938, the history of the former Volga Hotel interlaces closely with different historical periods of the city of Durres. The hotel built by the Italians changed name several times, and after the 90s his fame was extinguished.
However, the building on which the two buildings were erected and the favorable position in the center of Durres made it an enviable property after the 90s.
The documents BIRN possesses indicate that before being purchased by an Arab businessman, 3428 m2 of land and two buildings were recognized as property of Alija Fortuz, an elderly woman who lived in Greece before Liberation. Fortuzi authorized her nephew, Agim Sula to deal with the property issue in Albania and in March 1994, he provides a court decision and a second one by the Property Restitution and Compensation Commission on Property Rights.
In March-April 1994, the plot together with the former Vollga hotel and a two-story house are registered on behalf of Alie Fortuz in the mortgage register.
Five months later, Agim Sula goes shopping with businessman Abdulaziz Al Nowaiser, Muhammad Abdullah Bawazeer, and decides to sell the property for $ 800,000. The notarial contract between the two is signed on 3 October 1994 and the following day, the former Volga hotel is registered on a mortgage on behalf of Saudi Brother Commercial Company.
For 4 years, the issue of the former Volga hotel is considered closed. But in September 1998, Alija Fortuzi sued her nephew, Agim Sula, in Thessaloniki Court, accusing him of absorbing more than half of the money earned from the sale of the hotel.
The 1999 Investigation in Thessaloniki, a copy of which is owned by BIRN, legitimizes Agim Sula’s prosecutor as regular, but accuses him of absorbing about 400,000 USD from the total property value. According to the investigation, Sula had gone to Thessaloniki after the sale of the hotel and informed Alije Fortuz that he had sold him for $ 400,000 in real value.
The first installment of money, $ 675,000, he had deposited in his personal account at the Swiss Bank, from which he transferred $ 337,500 to the Fortuz account. Later in the process, Agim Sula claimed to have donated $ 200,000 to the “Mother Teresa” mission in Tirana for setting up a home for older women.
Sula described this donation as his “old wish”, but the investigation papers in Thessaloniki indicate that the plaintiff Fortuzi denied having authorized such a message.
By December 2002, no one remembers the former famous hotel, which degraded day by day. But Zanmir Hasa, the adopted son of Alija Fortuz, claims property after her death.
Immigrant in Greece for years, Hasa was hired by Alija Fortuzi to take care of her home and garden, leaning against old age. According to the documents submitted by Hasas, he was adopted by Alija Fortuzi.
In 1999, a court in Thessaloniki recognized Zanmir Hasan as the son and first successor of Alija Fortuz. In November 2002, Hasa was recognized as an heir by Albanian justice through a decision of the Tirana Court of Appeal.
Since 2002, Zanmir Hasa started a long legal battle with representatives of Saudi Brothers and Agim Sulen-his adoptive mother grandson for the former Volga hotel. His argument to the court was that Agim Sula was not equipped with regular prosecutors nor was he authorized to sell the property in Durres by Alija Fortuzi.
Through his lawyer, Mirjan Moçi, Hasa initially addresses the Court of Durres to declare the sale contract invalid. On March 13, 2003, the panel composed of Flora Hysi, Luljeta Topli and Majlinda Andrea gave him the right.
At the court site it is said that “the sale of the former hotel Volga was made by a person provided with prosecutors not as a notarial act – the form required by law”. The court also annuls the sales contract, forcing Mohammed Abdullah Bawazeer to return the property to heir Zanmir Hasa. According to this decision, the property is transferred to the mortgage register from Saudi Brothers CC to Zanmir Hasa. Representatives of the Arab company oppose the ruling that entitles Zanmir Hasas, considering the 2003 trial to be illegal, to which they allegedly ran in their absence.
While court proceedings continued, Zanmir Hasa secured a construction permit from the Durrës Territorial Adjustment Council for property development in 2009. Prior to obtaining a construction permit, Hasa had signed an investment contract with K & K Group, according to to whom he benefited 40% of a 6 + 3 storey building.
Ylvi Beqja told BIRN that judicial encounters became more difficult after obtaining a construction permit from the opposing side. In parallel with the court proceedings, Beqja also addressed the Durrës Prosecutor’s Office against the mortgage office.
In 2010, the Durrës Prosecutor’s Office concluded that “the property registration office has falsified the property and land history, wiping out the Saudi trading company’s ownership card”. According to prosecutor Agim Shehu, the 13 March 2003 court verdict was not to be transcribed in the mortgage records, but he stopped the investigation because the legal terms of punishment for this criminal offense had been prescribed.
Beqja addressed the Prosecution with a second denunciation of his and family’s threat. The perpetrator was investigated, and according to him he was sentenced to 50,000 ALL fine at the end of the trial.
“From that moment on I did not tell the threats anymore. Whom should I turn to, those who stopped matters? It’s useless, “says Beqja.
In February 2013, the Durrës District Court ruled in favor of “Saudi Brother Commercial Company”, ordering the Durres mortgage to cancel the 2003 change of ownership.
Actually, the case has gone back to the Supreme Court, but Zanmir Hasa, who lives in Thessaloniki, seems to have lost the support of his lawyers. BIRN contacted lawyers Mirjan Moci and Arben Qeleshi, who represented him at different times and both claimed to “give up the case”.
Asked if their client was threatened, Mok and Qeleshi said they were unaware of any such facts.
Still convinced that his client had the right to property, lawyer Mochi told BIRN that he had withdrawn from the case, as he was unable to defend him at the Tirana High Court.
While lawyer Arben Qeleshi says he retired years ago, as the “issue did not persuade”.
“At some point I saw that his case was weak. However, for me this property had to be nationalized by the state, because referring to the laws of the time, it was illegal for the land to be sold to a foreign company, “said Qeleshi./Reporter.al
