Arten Ramosaço, former husband of the Vetting Commissioner Valbona Sanxhaktari and father of their daughter, is one of thirty members of the criminal organization “Hakmarrja për Drejtësi” arrested in 1996.
This fact was initially made public by former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, and was later confirmed by a number of media outlets.
Hakmarrja organization was charged in 1996 with multiple serious crimes, including a terrorist bomb attack on a supermarket, which killed four innocent people. The group went through a long legal process, that took nearly 15 years, and although they were initially sentenced, the verdict was overturn by the High Curt of Albania, after Edi Rama came to power.
Some of organization’s members were also accused of crimes committed during 2002-2005, when they were fugitive from justice, including the murder of the driver for the then General Prosecutor Theodhori Sollaku.
Ramosaço, himself, was charged with aiding the leaders of the organization in their criminal activities.
Arten Ramosaço was married to Valbona Sanxhaktari, and they had a daughter in 2004. After their marriage, Arten changed his last name from Ramosaço to Sanxhaktari, his wife’s last name. Boldnews.al has confirmed this change is recorded in the civil registry.
It is unclear why he chose to change his name.
Arten held the last name Sanxhaktari until he divorced his wife. Following that, as official records show, he returned to his original last name, Ramosaço.
This revelation throws significant doubt on the proper vetting done by the Socialist majority before selecting people to be part of the vetting bodies that are reassessing judges and prosecutors.
Until now, some judges were dismissed after KPK “discovered” that they associated themselves with their nephews or relatives who had been accused of the odd marijuana joint, or some other minor felony.
These standards don’t seem to apply to the members of the Vetting Committee, who apparently are free to be extremely close to people suspected of being part of criminal and terrorist, organizations.
This article was published at Boldnews.al.