All News on Politics in Albania

Kosovo Guerrilla Leaders ‘Didn’t Directly Control Fighters’: Witness

Rrustem Mustafa, former commander of Kosovo Liberation Army's wartime Llap Operational Zone, also known by the nom de guerre Remi, told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague this week in the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants that the guerrilla force mainly functioned from the bottom up and did not have a fully-established chain of command.

Albania’s Parliament Greenlights ex-Deputy PM’s Arrest

Albania's parliament voted on Friday to accept the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organised Crime's request to be able to arrest former Deputy Prime Minister, Arben Ahmetaj.

The SPAK had requested the arrest and a personal search warrant and a house search in connection with charges on corruption and money laundering.

Albanian court rejects Beleri’s appeal

An Albanian court has rejected the appeal by Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of Himare in southern Albania and an ethnic Greek, who was seeking release under restrictive measures.

On Friday, the judges ruled to uphold the pretrial detention measure.

‘For us, freedom is not self-evident’

On the evening of March 11, 2023, the eve of the municipal elections in neighboring Albania, the then candidate for mayor of Himare, ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri, and his aide, Pantelis Kokavesis, were arrested by the police for allegedly attempting to buy votes. Almost two months later, and while he has already been elected mayor, Beleri remains in pre-trial detention.

PM raises ethnic Greek mayor’s arrest with Rama

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the issue of the release of the ethnic Greek mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, during a meeting with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama on Tuesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Albania Ruling Party Postpones Controversial Lustration Legislation

Sigurimi files in an exhibition in Tirana. Photo: LSA.

MPs from the governing Socialist Party on Monday decided to postpone approval of changes in two laws intended to ban people from running for parliament who collaborated with the Communist-era Sigurimi secret service after an intervention by the EU's ambassador to Tirana.

Albania Prosecutors Seek Former Deputy PM Arben Ahmetaj’s Arrest

Arben Ahmetaj, a long-time member of Albania's parliament and former Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister is facing a request from prosecutors for his arrest on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Ahmetaj, 54, holds parliamentary immunity, so the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK, has asked parliament for permission to arrest him.

Mayor’s case thorn in Athens-Tirana relations

The message from Athens to Tirana in Greek Ambassador Konstantina Kamitsi's statements to the Albanian press by was clear: The ongoing detainment of the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of Himare in Albania will be a thorn in the side of Greek-Albanian relations for some time to come.

Some Telco Users in Balkans, Moldova, in Dark over Rights

Applying methodology developed by Ranking Digital Rights, an independent research programme at the Washington-based New America policy think-tank, BIRN analysed the practices of the two biggest telecom companies in each country: Albtelecom and Vodafone Albania in Albania; BH Telecom and Telekom Srpske in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ipko and Vala in Kosovo; A1 and T-Mobile in North Macedonia; Moldce

Himare mayor-elect lashes out at Albanian PM

The mayor-elect of the predominantly ethnic Greek city of Himare in southern Albania lashed out against the country's Prime Minister Edi Rama after authorities refused to grant him leave from pretrial detention to take his mayoral oath.

FM decries Albania’s denial of special release

The Greek Foreign Ministry has slammed the refusal of Albanian authorities of the request by the detained elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, for special leave to attend and take the oath of office on Tuesday at the Municipal Council's first meeting. 

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