Albanian Senior Officials Jailed For Corruption

TIRANA, May 19 – The Tirana district court on Monday sentenced to prison a former junior minister, four other senior officials of the Transport Ministry and two owners of private companies. Previously convicted of corruption and abuse of post, the court handed down prison terms ranging from one to three years.
The officials, arrested in September last year following two months of investigations, were accused of corruption for illegally favoring private companies in tender projects.
Ex-deputy minister, Nikolin Jaka, was sentenced to one year and seven months imprisonment, fined 1.2 million leks and ordered not to serve in public positions for the next three years.
The other four ministry officials were sentenced from a year and a half to three years of imprisonment, which included fines up to 1.6 million leks and deprived of serving in public posts for the next five years.
The two businessmen were sentenced to one year and seven months imprisonment and each fined one million-leks.
Despite being a top priority for Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s government, in power for some three years, corruption still remains a prevalent phenomenon in post-communist Albania. Also, Albania still ranks high in international polls on corruption.