Albania’s Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption (SPAK) has announced formal extradition procedures against former Prosecutor General Adriatik Llalla after he was arrested in Italy.
Albanian police had issued an international arrest warrant on Llalla as they could not locate him following a final sentence for corruption against the former official in September.
An appeals court sentenced the former top prosecutor to two years in prison for not declaring his assets and banned him from exercising public office for five years. The ruling included confiscating 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.
However, there were delays in issuing his international arrest warrant. Three days after his sentencing, there were no records of an arrest warrant with Interpol.
State Police told BIRN that “an international warrant has procedures and has not been done yet.”
SPAK has forwarded official extradition documentation to the Ministry of Justice. The matter will then be passed to Italian authorities, and a court will decide on his extradition.
Llalla claims the charges are politically motivated, and there are reports he has sought political asylum in Italy. He is persona non-grata in the United States.
