Albania’s former top prosecutor, Adratik Llalla, who had received a jail sentence but fled the country before arrest, has been arrested by the Italian police, Albanian media have reported.
Llalla was arrested on 10 December, according to reports, and his extradition to Albania should be decided by an Italian court.
Albanian police had issued an international arrest warrant on Llalla as they were unable to locate him following a final sentence for corruption against the former official in September.
The former top prosecutor was sentenced by an appeals court to two years in prison for not declaring his assets, and banned for five years from exercising public office. The ruling included the confiscation of an apartment and 22,000 square meters of land.
Albania’s top prosecutor from 2012 to 2017 should have immediately started to serve his sentence, but he wasn’t present when the judge announced the final verdict in September.
Media reports suggested that Llalla left Albania two weeks ago for Rome, Italy from Tirana airport.
The former prosecutor resigned from his post in 2017 and did not submit to the vetting process under the justice reform.
He has claimed his sentence was politically motivated, while some media reports suggest he has claimed political asylum in Italy.
Update: Albanian police confirmed the news in an announcement on Monday, stating that Llalla was now on a “provisional arrest” until a court ruling on his extradition to Albania.
