Tirana

The Sanctions Buster

Illustration: BIRN

Slobodan Tesic is reputedly one of the biggest arms traders in the Balkans. He is also one of the most controversial in the region, having been the subject of UN sanctions over violations of embargoes on weapons exports to Liberia for the best part of a decade.

Asked by BIRN whether it saw any issue in the fact prosecutors had not used anti-mafia legislation against Gjini or Shkalla, the Prosecution against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK, said it had "no comment on the matter." The law should be applied to both men automatically.

"He later sent me photos of our house, which was burned," she tells BIRN in an interview at a hotel in Albania's port city of Durres, on the Adriatic. "We have basically nothing now," she adds.

Media experts say Albanian journalists are struggling to deal with the political and professional pressures they are under after Prime Minister Edi Rama lashed out at two reporters in recent months, refusing to answer their questions because he said they were "unethical".

Albania's national air carrier, Air Albania, will connect Athens with Tirana with four flights a week. More specifically, Air Albania will operates flights to / from Tirana-Athens on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The building of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.  Photo: EPA-EFE/PATRICK SEEGER

Had the company done that, "this Court would have had the benefit of the views of the national courts", the ruling read.

The ECHR said the company had failed to take appropriate steps to enable national courts to fulfil their fundamental role.

Albania deported 80 Italian football fans on Wednesday after they clashed with police on Tuesday evening in Tirana on the eve of UEFA Conference League match between Roma and Dutch club Feyenoord.

Feyenoord fans also clashed with officers, throwing glass bottles, sticks and stones on Tuesday, trying to get nearer to the National Arena Stadium in order to clash with Roma fans.

Albania Special Prosecutors Office in Tirana. Photo: Albanian Prosecution Office.

Tirana's Special Court Against Organised Crime and Corruption found Sokol Bode, chief of police in the southern Albanian village of Dhermi, guilty in absentia.

Bode has been on the run since Italian police cracked a cannabis smuggling ring dubbed 'the Habilaj Brothers.'

Powerful, politically-connected businessman Shefqet Kastrati has entered Albania's crowded media market with the purchase on Monday of Euronews Albania, following in the footsteps of Samir Mane who bought TV SCAN last month.

The United States sanctioned seven people in politics, media and justice in the Balkans on Monday, calling them a "serious threat to regional stability" and the cause of democracy.