Italian Ambassador Alberto Cutillio has never addressed the drug and crime problem in Albania, even though his country is directly affected by it, being the main destination of drug traffickers. Particularly, even as Saimir Tahiri is being investigated by the Sicilian prosecution for collaborating with an Albanian-Italian drug trafficking organization, the Ambassador has chosen, prudently, to refrain from making any public comments.
However, in the last few days, he has been very active with public declarations concerning the Agron Xhafaj case. It is a bit odd that, as an Ambassador, he can speak for the Italian justice institutions, divulging specific details regarding the case in question that hasn’t even been ruled on yet, especially when the case concerns someone who is being newly accused of drug trafficking in Albania, and the case itself has taken political dimensions, as his Minister brother is being pressured to resign.
In an interview with TV Klan, Cutillio stated that:
The person in question has turned himself in voluntarily to the Fiumicino border police and he has been transferred to the Civitavecchia prison near Rome, where he will also carry out his sentence. His sentence amounted to, more or less, 4 years and two months. After having been in prison for a month, at the time of his arrest, he will spend only 4 years and 28 days in prison. In cases like this, if the detainee petitions for an early release, he can be released much earlier than that date. I don’t know how the case will play out, but it is very likely that the time [Xhafaj] will have to actually spend in prison will be much shorter.
It is worth noting that the Ambassador stresses that Xhafaj’s surrender was “voluntary,” however, this is not precisely the case. Xhafaj surrendered under the constant pressure that followed the accusations of the Democratic Party, perhaps in order to avoid an Albanian investigation or to rescue his brother’s career.
More importantly, in the above statement, the Ambassador falsely alleges that Xhafaj has been sentenced to a shorter prison time than that claimed by the opposition, 4 years and 2 months, instead of 7 years and two months.
Intentionally or not, the Ambassador speaks of the time Xhafaj must spend in prison after certain diminishments to his court-ordered sentence. Agron Xhafaj was sentenced to 7 years and 2 months in prison via the verdict of October 12, 2008 by the First Degree Court of Lecce. This ruling was upheld by the Appeals Court of Lecce on January 25, 2011, as well as by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy, via verdict no. 2232, dated September 25, 2012.
Agron Xhafaj’s actual predicted time in prison was reduced by three years for procedural reasons, to 4 years and two months. Therefore, Xhafaj was sentenced to 7 years and two months, however, due to reductions, he only had to spend 4 years and two months in prison.
Even worse, the Ambassador felt the need to warn that Agron Xhafaj would be released sooner than the predicted four year sentence, even though this has not yet been decided by any court or Italian law enforcement organ. However, oddly enough, the Ambassador fails to mention whether the fact that Agron Xhafaj has escaped Italian justice for nearly 6 years will entail any penalties for him.
However, the Ambassador saved the greatest lie of all for the second part of his interview with Klan:
The person has been convicted in Italy, but, according to internal Italian regulations, when the sentence is shorter than a certain term, an extradition is not requested, because the procedural effort is greater than the possibility that such a short sentence will be carried out. We have thousands such cases and this one is no exception. Prison sentences shorter than 3 years are not carried out, unless it is a repeat offense. Whereas for the ones longer than 4 years, one would deal with social services, anyhow one wouldn’t go to prison. Sentences that do not exceed a certain length are not considered significant enough to warrant extradition procedures.
It isn’t clear what internal regulations the Ambassador is referring to, however, this claim of his is entirely untrue.
It is a fact that the other Albanian members of Xhafaj’s gang – who received the same sentence, for the same crime, and the same sentence reductions as Agron Xhafaj – have been included in the international wanted persons list by the Italian authorities, leaving Agron Xhafaj to be a glaring exception, for reasons still unclear.
For example: Gramos Murataj, member of the same gang, apprehended in the same international operation as Xhafaj, investigated for the same crimes and convicted of the same accusations as Xhafaj, is currently and has been wanted by Italy. Murataj was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison, and, like Xhafaj, his sentence was reduced by three years, making the time he must spend in prison 4 years and 6 months.
The Office of Execution of the Prosecution at the Lecce Court, which is responsible, according to Italian law, for carrying out the Court’s rulings, released an international warrant for Murataj’s arrest on February 7, 2009, per decree no. SIEP 273/2008.
Following this warrant, Murataj was arrested on April 17, 2013 and the Albanian Prosecution Office immediately began the procedures for his extradition. The Vlora Court approved the extradition request via decree no. 271, dated June 13, 2013, upheld by the Vlora Appeals Court via decree no. 70, dated July 9, 2013.
However, the Supreme Court overturned these decrees via decree no. 18, dated January 21, 2014, and did not allow for Murataj’s extradition, releasing him, instead. This one case is enough to dispute Cutillio’s claims. However, in an ironic coincidence, a few days before the Ambassadors false statements, another Albanian was extradited at the request of the Italian authorities, further disproving the Ambassador’s claims.
A few days ago, on May 26, the Bulgarian police, at the behest of the Italian authorities, arrested an Albanian citizen who had been sentenced to two years and 6 months in prison by an Italian court. Even though his crimes and his sentence were significantly lighter than those of Agron Xhafaj, the Italian authorities requested his extradition and carried out the extradition procedures, in contradiction to Cutillio’s claim.
One can only wonder what drives Ambassador Cutillio’s false claims concerning Agron Xhafaj. However, these claims are certainly not doing the Italian judiciary system any favors, as they incite Albanian citizens convicted by Italian courts to escape to Albania, while, at the same time, reassuring those already escaped to never go back to Italy to carry out their sentences.
It is important to remember that Cutillio has been involved in defending Saimir Tahiri regarding the scandal of the introduction and use of the IMSI Catcher telephone eavesdropping device. Cutillio publicly justified bringing the device in Albania as a training device, but refused to hand it over to the Prosecution Office so it could be investigated. To date, after 2 years, the device is still being kept locked up within the Italian Embassy in Tirana, as it cannot be taken out of the country because the Albanian Prosecution has a warrant out for its confiscation.
Thus, taking advantage of his diplomatic immunity, the Ambassador is obstructing Albanian justice.
