TIRANA, Feb. 15 – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a public statement Thursday, designating former Albanian General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla as a person who cannot enter the United States “due to his involvement in significant corruption.”
U.S. law provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State “has credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.”
The law also requires the Secretary of State to publicly or privately designate such officials and their family members. Tillerson has chosen to make a public statement.
The move could make Llalla subject to vetting and investigation from new justice reform bodies even though he has resigned from the system.
In addition to the designation of Llalla, the secretary is also publicly designating Llalla’s spouse, daughter, and a minor child were also banned.
Llalla and his wife had earlier been stripped of U.S. visas after his wife gave birth in the United States. That child is a U.S. citizen and thus cannot be banned from returning.
The former GP publicly clashed with the U.S. Ambassador Donald Lu. After Llalla was accused of not doing his job to fight corruption and being against justice reform, Llalla said the U.S. diplomat was exerting undue pressure on Albanian authorities, indicating he was asked to close a case against an international oil company and to arrest politicians without proper proof.
