Three Albanian Officials Accused of Hiding Wealth

Albania’s Inspectorate for the Audit of Assets and Conflict of Interests, ILDKPKI, has a filed a criminal complaint at the general prosecutor’s office against the country’s ambassador to Slovakia, Agim Isaku, and judges Ken Dhima and Klorinda Cela.

Isaku is accused of failing to justify the source of income for the acquisition of two apartments in Tirana, bought for a total value of 196,920 euro, three undeclared bank accounts respectively containing 58,864 euro, $170,388 (123,702 euro) and 26,638,341 lek (189,566 euro), and 5,800,000 lek (41,270 euro) in government bonds.

Isaku formerly served as advisor to ex-President Rexhep Mejdani and Socialist prime ministers Fatos Nano and Ilir Meta.

Judges Dhima and Cela, who are husband and wife, are also accused of not being able to justify a number of down-payments for the acquisition of real estate, declaring false sources of revenue and hiding bank accounts worth hundreds of thousands of euro.

If found guilty, they could face a sentence ranging from a fine to three years of imprisonment.

The charges follow the appointment on February 20 of Shkelqin Ganaj as the new head of ILDKPI, following the dismissal by parliament of his predecessor Zana Xhuka.

Ganaj has accused his two predecessors Xhuka and Adriatik Lalla of failing to investigate and report on criminal investigations of officials who  accused of hiding assets and cash.

He has ordered a total review of the files on senior state officials from 2003 onwards.

Llala, who served as chief inspector of ILKDKI from 2007 to 2012, is currently Albania’s general prosecutor.