TIRANA, May 16 – Agron Xhafaj, brother of Albania’s Minister of Interior Fatmir Xhafaj, is reported to have left for Italy on Wednesday to give himself in to authorities and serve his sentence.
The Xhafaj brothers have been under the spotlight over the past week – A. Xhafaj was accused of continuing to traffic drugs over wiretaps published by the country’s opposition while F. Xhafaj was accused of changing the country’s penal law to help his brother escape his sentence.
After posting a letter directed to the public opinion, A. Xhafaj reportedly turned himself to the authorities in Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.
In his letter, A. Xhafaj wrote that despite the mistakes he made in his youth, the political and public pressure exercised towards his family and brother, who is currently the country’s interior minister, made him realize the only way to act was by repaying his mistakes according to the law.
“I have decided to address Italian justice authorities personally to undergo the criminal charges they placed on me,” A. Xhafaj wrote.
According to him, the Italian authorities never showed interest in executing the charges, despite him having done all legal efforts for a proper trial in Italy to take place.
“Today I am 43 years old and since 2002 until now I haven’t acted or behaved in any way that goes against laws and morals. For a long time, my attention and energy have been focused on my family,” he wrote.
Also addressing the recent wiretaps published by the country’s Democratic Party opposition, claiming A. Xhafaj is trafficking drugs from Vlore to Italy to this day, Xhafaj wrote he has sued the DP for lying and has taken all legal measures to prove the wiretaps are fake.
“Meanwhile I have declared and given legal explanations that the published audio, including the sound effects and images, is fake and was made public in the media to blackmail and pressure me and my brother, the minister of interior,” A. Xhafaj’s letter concludes.
In the Socialist Party parliamentary group meeting gathered on Wednesday, Prime Minister Edi Rama called the published wiretaps slander, but that would be investigated by scientific international expertise.
