Head of Serious Crimes Prosecution Donika Prela will be vetted today by the Independent Qualification Commission (KPK). The KPK panel in today’s hearing will include Roland Ilia, Olsi Komici dhe Valbona Sanxhaktari.
Donika Prela holds the second most powerful position in the prosecution system in Albania. In May 2018, Temporary General Prosecutor Arta Marku replaced former head of Serious Crimes Prosecution Besim Hajdarmataj with Donika Petrela.
Prosecutor Prela’s asset declarations show the following issues:
1 – Buying an apartment with unjustified financial sources
In 2007, Donika Prela bought a 97.5 sq.m. apartment in Durrës for €32,000. The Prelas borrowed €15.000 from a relative, with no written document to prove it. There is no information on how the couple was able to pay the remaining €17,000.
The Prelas had no declared savings. An analysis of their asset declarations and income for years 2006–2008 shows that, in order to have been able to pay the €17,000 and half of their debt (€7,500), as declared, the Prela family should have lived on €125/month in 2007 and €216/month in 2008.
This means that the Prelas have lived in poverty in the 2006–2008 period, as per the UN definition.
2 – Buying land for a price ten times lower than government reference price
In 2013, the Prelas bought a 1,000 square metre of land in Petrela, Tirana, at the price of €2.5/sq.m. Government reference price list for 2013 shows that the price of land in Petrela, Tirana, was €25/sq.m., or ten times higher than the Prelas’ purchase. The average price in the area was €40/sq.m., or 16 times higher than the Prelas’ purchase.
3 – Buying an apartment and selling it shortly for a three times higher price
In 2014, Donika Prela bought a 59.2 sq.m. apartment in the Durrës beach for €10,000. The price is several times lower than the average price in the area, and more importantly several times lower than apartments sold at the same time, in the same building, by the same Bruçi shpk construction company. Just to give an example, purchaser K.H. bought an apartment there for a price three times higher than the Prelas.
The Prelas had made the down payment on their apartment before a purchase contract was signed and with no notarial act.
4 – Unusual declaration entries
In 2016, Donika Prela received €2,200 as a second installment from Afroditi Mamoli paying back a loan to the prosecutor. Prela had never declared such a loan, and it is not clear when it was given and what the amount of the original loan was.
In 2004, Donika Prela bought a second-hand car for €2,000. She sold the same car in 2008 for €2,500, in an unusual case where a second-hand car’s price is higher after four years of usage.
Another suspicious declaration relates Donika Prela’s husband’s multiple jobs at the same during the years. Such jobs include public administration and private sector jobs, although the law prohibits working in both public and private sectors simultaneously.
Earlier, the KPK has dismissed several prosecutors and judges for seemingly less relevant issues. Prosecutor Dritan Reshka was dismissed because of unclear information regarding a house his family had built before Reshka had even started to work in the justice system. Prosecutor Gentian Trenova was dismissed just because he had made a down payment in cash, with no notary act, although the origin of the money was verified and legal.
