Tirana

The municipality of Tirana is demanding damages from the opposition Democratic Party for damaging state institutions and a bunker in Tuesday's protest.

The municipality said it sought 118,000 euros for damage caused in the different parts of the city during the violent unrest.

The head of Albania's main opposition party faces a probe concerning 17 building permits issued by the municipality of Tirana when Basha was mayor from 2011 until 2015.

A source in the general prosecutor's office told BIRN that the probe into Basha follows charges filed by the National Agency for Planning, AKPT, over a number of building permits.

Arben Frroku is believed to have fled Albania following the Serious Crimes Court's first instance ruling on April 3rd, which found him not guilty of the murder of a policeman.

Genc Gjokutaj, his lawyer, said that the court had been under political pressure and he would appeal to the Supreme Court.

The left-wing coalition headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama won or is leading in key races in the local elections held on Sunday in Albania, but its victory is expected to be much less convincing than in 2013.

Forty-one-year-old Lamaj was killed by gunfire from an AK-47 assault rifle after parking his car outside his apartment in the Vasil Shanto neighbourhood of Tirana.

Frroku, a businessman with a history of conflicts with Lamaj, was arrested in Thessaloniki, Greece, one day later and extradited to Albania.

The zoo in the Albanian capital was shuttered after the video was published online last week by Animal Rescue Albania, a Tirana-based campaign group.

In an open letter to the city's mayor Lulzim Basha, Animal Rescue Albania called on the authorities to close the zoo down and end the cruelty towards the animals kept there.

In the first nine months of 2014, the municipality of Tirana spent more than 20.4 million lek (€145,600) in advertising in several national daily newspapers, while all other municipalities in the country spent a total 3 million lek (€21,400) during the same period. 

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