The head of Tirana’s prosecutorial office, Elizabeta Imeraj has given a press conference regarding the arrest of those believed to have been involved in leaking the private salary data of over 690,000 residents and citizens in Albania.
In December, three lists of people’s personal data were leaked to the public including name, ID number, salary, car registration, and various other details. This comes eight months after a list of registered voters in Tirana was leaked, including information on their voting preferences.
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“Taking into account the damage to the interests of citizens and the increased interest of the public in relation to the event, but also the concern I have a prosecutor in such an event, investigative actions have been carried out and relevant data has been obtained. The seizure of the PC and servers continued and concluded in a reasonable suspicion that we have identified four perpetrators,” she said.
She added that of the four arrested, two worked in state institutions and two within the private sector. The latter is believed to have purchased the data from the state employees for around 20,000 ALL (EUR 160) for each list.
She added that investigations were underway in the Directorate of Road and Transport following the leak of people’s car registration data.
Charges levied against the four include passive corruption in the private sector and abuse of duty amongst others.
A total of six lists including people’s employment and salary data have reportedly been transferred between the accused.
To date, no one has been arrested over the leak of personal data, allegedly used by the Socialist Party prior to the April elections in 2021.
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