Albania Ex-chief Prosecutor Sentenced For Corruption

Tirana, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st May, 2021 ) :Albania's former chief prosecutor was on Thursday sentenced to two years in prison for corruption, a special anti-graft court said.

The verdict showed that Adriatik Llalla, once one of Albania's most powerful and feared men, gave false information on his illegal assets.

They included an apartment in the seaside city of Durres and more than two hectares of land, whose total value exceeded 8 million Euros ($10 million).

The court established that Llalla "could not explain" where he got the money to buy the real estate.

As well as being jailed, he was also banned from holding public office for next five years.

Llalla is the most senior public official sentenced by the Special Court of Corruption and Organised Crime, a new institution established in 2019 as part of Albania's rocky effort to clean-up its graft-riddled judiciary.

Under EU pressure, the Balkan country has ordered some 800 judges and prosecutors to declare their assets in effort to root out corruption.

Around 20 senior judges have stepped down from their posts to avoid the review.

Former prosecutor Llalla and his family were barred from entering the United States in 2018 due to his "involvement in significant corruption", the State Department said at the time.

Llalla's conviction comes only a day after US State Department Wednesday banned former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha from travelling to the United States, again because of links to "significant corruption."