“mister” discovered of Polish arms dealer's death in Tirana

The ballon with the rusty satellite receiver belongs to Andrze Izdebski's apartment. Foto: Michigan Cocot

André Izdebski did not respond to repeated knocks at the door of his apartment in Tirana at noon on June 20th.

Outside the rented residence, on the second floor of one of the Soviets built in the centre of the capital known as the Agim Patalettes, sat a senior armed forces officer and former leader of the USIU Army Intelligence Service.

Along with the owner of the apartment, Zyla tried to open the door with a copy of the key, but it was locked from the inside and the landlord's key was left in the lock. Concerned about his Polish friend Zyla called the firemen and the police. A few minutes after their arrival, the palace manager, Tomor Barut, and one of the firemen climbed up the balcony of the car - locked apartment.

We pulled the mosquito net out of the window,” said Baruti. “I entered from one arm, while fireman from the other side,” he added.

Barut and fireman found Izdebski lifeless, lying on the bed in the bedroom.

“There was blood on the mattress, on both sides of it”, he recalled.

Police reported their deaths in a brief press communique on the same day. Izdebski was wrongly identified with the initials A.H. And at the age of 73.

When death was learned in Poland a month later, the Communist's mistakes and the victim's dark past as arms dealer involved in the United Nations blacklist raised doubts. For more, the businessman was under investigation in his country, for at least 8m euros of unpaid obligations from a contract with the Polish government to supply hospitals with respiratory equipment for people with COVID-19. Speculations of a makeshift death to avoid unpaid duties occupied the boulevardske newspapers in Poland.

In Tirana, however, police and prosecutors insist that death has come for natural causes.

The main argument is that he died of heart attack”, said Arens Cheela, head of the Tirana Prosecutorship, who added that 20 similar cases are recorded in the capital every month. Cela stressed that to call the case closed, the prosecution is also expecting a final analysis by the Law Medicine Institute.

I contacted Colonel Ylli Zyla over the death of Andreze Izdebski and associated with the deceased.

“I am military, cannot speak,” he said.

Who's Izdebski?

Andreze Izdebski's name, which during the time of communism in Poland had worked for the secret services, is not first mentioned in Albania.

In 2011, the Polish opened two businesses in Tirana -- the Unimesco company that targeted the arms trade and a baptized company called the Wind Sun Water Initiative -- with the object of the energy sector and partners, including Ljiljana Zyla, wife of the Star Zyla. The two companies were founded at the same address in “Matrics” palaces near the Tirana Court in late January 2011.

The company, partner Ljiljana Zyla, brought a storm of accusations to the media by the opposition Socialist Party. The Socialists accused former SHIU chief and the defence ministry of being involved in the illegal arms and ammunition trade. Zyla resigned from SHIU, but in the statement leaving described the allegations in the media as “immoral and groundless attacks.

Two years later, when the Socialists came to power in 2014, the Defence Ministry also dismissed Zyla from the military police chief's duty and indicted him at the prosecutor accused of illegally spying on the opposition. But the charges never went to court. By contrast, Zyla succeeded in winning the trial against the Ministry of Defence, which was forced to restore the colonel's uniform. He is at least from the beginning of 2021, commander of the Training Centre near the Armed Forces Support Command.

But while Zyla's troubles over Izdebski's name seem to have ended, Polish bizesmen had new problems in Poland after winning a 44.5m-euro contract from the Health Ministry for supplies of respiratory medical equipment in 2020.

Under the contract, Izdebski would have to supply until June 30th 2020 at the peak of the pandemic by COVID-19, 920 respirators. The price was three times higher than that of the market, but was justified on the condition that the apartments would surrender soon. But in the world involved in the race to secure the same equipment, the arms dealer accused, among other things, of breaking the embargo and supplying arms to Croatia during the wars for the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, failed to meet the contract on time.

When Izdebski managed to secure part of the equipment, the Polish Health Ministry gave up and they were stored at Warsaw Airport. This left the 71-year-old with an obligation of at least 8m euros to the government obligation that could be increased by ongoing investigations because even the respirators who surrendered allegedly are useless and their repairs would be expensive.

Under investigation in his country, Izdebski chose Tirana. According to the Lublin Prosecutor's Regional Office, Izdebski's hometown, he had left Poland on December 9, 2020.

“Andreze I was not summoned to the prosecutor to report the charges, because it was known that the suspect was not in his residence,” said Regional Loblin Prosecutor's Office spokesman Carol Blairski.

Izdebski was declared on the run in March 2022, only after being denounced by Polish deputies, who noted that he had failed to pay the State Value Tax for respiratories he sold to the Ministry of Health.

But at this time the late one was already in Tirana trying to establish a new business with old friends.

Myftari's eye, the former military man who was hired as manager of Izdebski's company. Photo: Michigan Coco.

Business in Tirana

The evidence provided by BIRN and Wyborcza show that Izdebski came to Albania at the end of 2021 and contacted Star Zyla. In January, with Zyla's proposal, he met Day Myftar, and the two offered him to be administrator at a new Izdebski company, which, according to the description set out at the National Business Centre, would deal with trade of military materials, arms, mines and a host of other areas.

Miftar é a former aviation engineer and former SHIU employee, said during an interview at a café in Tirana that he had known a close <x0 mic school”), but insisted he would not say his name for the sake of friendship.

“At the end of January 2022, a few weeks after they had first met, Myftari and Izdebski registered a company called Trade Invest & Moreé sh.p.k.

Myftari, who already worked at a wineryry, was appointed manager of the new company and agreed to pay 80 thousand dollars a month a payment he never saw.

And then he told me that we'd be dealing with the trade of respirators and military arms materials, and I told him I didn't agree on the guns,” reminded Myftar.

Myfty says he met Izdebski only four times. In all cases, he was with Zyla, who served as an interpreter. Just once in March, Myftari and Izdebski were alone. At the time they went to the immigration Police offices in Tirana to get a residence permit for the controversy.

According to him, the arms dealer had spent time in the country and had to travel to Montenegro for several days before he could enter Albania again.

Myftari says he originally had no idea of Izdebski's past. He told him that for two months after the company's census, he did not know what her last name was. But then I started looking online.

When I saw what was written about him in Poland, I called my friend,”, he recalled, while he pointed out that he assured me that everything would be okay. )

“told me the problems were in Poland, but we don't have to worry, because there's no problem here”, the 51-year-old added.

But the problems soon prevailed. Miftar says that initially they were unable to open a bank account, as a number of banks refused.

I realized it was about Andrej's past”, he said.

Finally a branch of a Hungarian bank in Tirana agreed to open the account, but only on the condition that the business object be narrowed. Izdebski then established the respiratory business.

On the other hand, the company's bank account was left empty, as Izdebski did not deposit money on it. When it was announced that it had to pay local taxes and obligations for social and health insurance, the credit-owned Myftari was disturbed and again called Zyla.

He assured me that the problems were temporary and concerned with blocking Andrej's accounts in Poland,” says Myftar.

He stressed that he had hoped business would work. He even made Izdebski a bottle of wine from those of his gift company, and when the latter expressed interest in the business, Myftar committed himself to obtain a good offer from his boss in the state.

But despite the chance of the cantina's offer, Izdebski no longer returned. Myftar says that he's been making a bad point at working with his family, and from this point on he wanted to leave the Polish company. He says that when the deadline for social insurance was approaching and they were not paid, he pressured them to leave if the payment was not met.

But on May 17th, some 700 thousand dollars were poured into business accounts. Some 300 thousand dollars were taken; from Izdebski, others were used on June 3rd to pay off their obligations.

Myftar says that at this time, he was clear that this work had no future.

Have I regretted being involved? ' Yeah, it felt like I got it”, he said.

Toorr Baruti, manager of the palace where the deceased lived. Photo: vladimir Karaj.

Unexpected Death

Evidence taken and collections of Tirana's prosecution's first investigation by BIRN and Wyborcza newspaper show that 71-year-old began to feel badly Saturday 18 June.

Myftari's Eye says he learned from his “hoke” that they had been for a lunch in St. After lunch when others were up for walking, Izdebski said that he would stay because he did not feel well.

Miftar said Zyla had offered to take him to the hospital, but 71-year-old had refused saying he would pass.

The palace manager, Tomor Baruti, states about a conversation similar to that of Zyla, lunch, when Izdebski was found dead.

The “felt very bad that it had not insisted on sending it to the hospital”, he recalled.

Then Zyla tried to call Izdebski. Baruti says that after failing to open his phone, Monday morning Zyla zela, whom he identified in the photo, he thought the Polish was asleep. But since another attempt to connect had failed he had appeared at the apartment.

When Izdebski did not respond to the knocks, Zyla called the police and firemen who found him dead. Prosecutor Naim Tota, who is investigating the case, said no signs of violence had been found in his body. A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity stressed that the involvement of a third person was expelled, as the door was locked from the inside and there were no signs of breaking.

Prosecutor Tota stated that at the moment they had no reason to investigate beyond natural death. Tirana Prosecutor's Speaker Arens Cela stressed that other investigations could be undertaken only if there were doubts that the cause of death was something else.

Asked about Izdebski's past, prosecutors in Tirana said they had no information. They also stated they had not had a contact with the Polish authorities about investigations into the 71-year-old death. The only ones interested were relatives who had pulled the body to Tirana's morgue.

Although it seems certain of the reasons for death, Albanian authorities are officially awaiting completion of toxicology tests by the Institute of Legal Medicine.

At the same time, afraid that the businessman's sudden death would open up additional work, Myftari's Eye said it was only relieved when one of the doctors he contacted assured him that everything was natural. Now he's trying to get himself out of the deceased company, but as he shows, he's not getting a simple job.