Dhimitër Koleci did not open the envelope brought by the courier for a week, as he thought it was about another letter regarding the lawsuit that the residents of Zall Gjoçaj had filed against the company "Seka Hydropower" for the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in that area.
However, later Dhimitri realized that he was actually the defendant.
"The courier called me and I always thought that we have a lawsuit that has been filed in Lezha for the damages that the company has caused in the area and it has been there for 5-6 years and no one has touched it at all. Always with the idea that this is our lawsuit," Dhimitër Koleci told Citizens.al.
In fact, the lawsuit filed by "Seka Hydropower" was filed against residents Dhimitër Koleci, Adem Xhokola in Zall Gjoçaj and Jorgji Locaj in Lufaj, Mirdita, for committing criminal offenses of insult and defamation.
The three residents are united by the same cause: opposition to hydroelectric power plants on the Flim and Uraka rivers.
The company "Seka Hydropower" claims that the residents sued during the organization of a protest in Lufaj, Mirdita in July 2025, have damaged its image, through the communication they had with the media and among themselves.
For Jorgji Locaj, this is direct pressure on them as activists and parties affected by the construction of the hydroelectric power plant.
"I have not committed any kind of slander, I have only spoken the truth. Everything I have spoken there is based on facts", said Jorgji Locaj to Citizens.al.
According to him, the investment he made in his hometown has been wasted, ever since the water was installed in the pipes. He says that every time he goes to the village with his family, he takes drinking water with him, because due to the hydroelectric power plant, there is no drinking water.
"All my trees there have dried up due to the lack of water from the hydroelectric power plants. I don't want to get into trouble, justice will be served. I financed it myself, bringing water through pipes to my land just to avoid conflict with the company, I paid out of my own pocket.", said Locaj.
This lawsuit is also a form of pressure for activist Dhimitër Koleci, who, together with Adem Xhokola and other residents and activists of the area, are protesting and opposing, through open legal proceedings against the company, the hydroelectric power plant built in Zall-Gjocaj.
"These are not slander, these are all proven, we have declared everything even in the lawsuits we have filed. This is pressure being put on activists. It is not the first time this has happened. We have had threats, we have also been sent to the police stations by other activists, it is not the first time this has happened.", said Dhimitër Koleci.
According to Kolec, the file sent to the Lezha Prosecutor's Office was not taken into account at all, while they protested twice in front of this institution.
"No call, nothing, we've been submitting it for 6 years, for the damages the company did there, damage to the cemetery, damage to the mill, the irrigation canal, drinking water, all of this.", said Dhimitër Koleci.
Koleci, along with other activists, have also visited other communities that are opposing the construction of hydroelectric power plants as a sign of solidarity.
The communities of Kaçinari, Kurdaria, and Lufaj are also protesting against the construction of hydroelectric power plants in these areas.
Such lawsuits are called SLAPP lawsuits, which are usually filed by companies against citizens or journalists, with the aim of silencing their initiatives.
The residents of Zall Gjoçaj are currently in court, most recently at the Administrative Court of Appeal in Tirana, where the next hearing is expected to be held on October 28, 2025.
A five-year legal battle
The appeal lawsuit challenges a 2020 decision, in which the Court of First Instance dismissed residents' requests to stop construction in the "Lurë-Mali i Dejës" National Park.
Meanwhile, the local community had opposed the projects with protests since 2018.
The current case requires the invalidity of the environmental declaration, the construction permit, the water use permit, as well as the repeal of the order of the former Ministry of Tourism and Environment that reduced the forest fund of the area by approximately 6180 m.2 as well as the letters from the AKZM that gave the green light to the development of the projects.
The central argument of the residents of Zall-Gjoçaj is that according to Law No. 81/2017 on Protected Areas, the construction of such plants is not allowed in areas of category "II" of the protection level.
Therefore, as defendants, in addition to the company "Seka Hydropower", there are also institutions such as: the Ministry of Environment, the National Environmental Agency, the Mat Water Basin Council, the National Territorial Council, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and the Mat Municipality.
In 2018, Zall-Gjoçaj merged with Lura to form one of the largest national parks in Albania. But in January 2022, the government revised the borders and removed from this park the area where the Zajs hydroelectric dam has already been built.
This legal change, made in the midst of a legal conflict, was seen by residents as an attempt to legitimize the violation. Earlier, in February 2020, the residents of Mati had requested the relocation of the hydropower plants outside the protected area and filed a second lawsuit for this.
Chronology of the legal proceedings:
- November 2019 – The Administrative Court of First Instance rejected the request to stop the works.
- June 2020 – The Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit to ban the HPPs.
- January 2021 – The court annulled the license granted by the Energy Regulatory Authority (ERE) for the “Zajs” HPP within the Zall-Gjoçaj National Park.
- January 2021 – The court dismissed the lawsuit against the institutions that issued the permits.
- June 2021 – Residents protested in front of the Administrative Court of Appeal demanding that it consider their appeal.
- November 2021 – The appeal upholds the decision to cancel the ERE license of the "Zajs" HPP.
- February 2022 – ERE implements the decision and revokes the license of the "Zajs" HPP.
- November 2022 – The Supreme Court finally confirms the revocation of the license of the company "Seka Hydropower" for one of the HPPs.
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Erisa Kryeziu has completed higher studies in Journalism and Communication and Master of Science in Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She has been a journalist and project manager at Citizens.al for five years, where she reports on social issues and human rights, especially on issues of rights at work, in education, gender equality, marginalized groups, people with disabilities such as and for environmental issues. At the same time, she works as a project coordinator with a focus on youth and media education. User of new reporting techniques such as "Mobile Journalism" and citizen engagement tools in reporting (ECR-Engage Citizens Journalism).
