TIRANA, April 21 – An Albanian court sentenced Tuesday Vasil Bollano, Himara mayor, to six months imprisonment for removing road signs which did not include Greek names.
Judge Shkelzen Selimi of Vlora district court sentenced Vasillaq Bollano, who was not present, to imprisonment, a fine of 500,000 ALL (3,948 EUR; or 5,123 USD) and lifting his right to hold a public post for three years.
His sentence was for abuse of post with overstepping his authority when removing the road signs written in Albanian and English, moves which disrupted traffic in that area.
Bollano is mayor of the town of Himara, 200 kilometers southwest of Tirana, which is an area of ethnically mixed Albanians and Greeks across Albania’s riviera coastline.
He is also head of the Omonia Ethnic Greek Minority Association.
Bollano said he would appeal the verdict and “take it up to the Strasbourg Court if needed.”
“There will be political reaction and we shall also make known this unfair and invented trial to all partners inside the country and outside,” Bollano said after the verdict.
That was also echoed by Vangjel Dule of the Human Rights Union party reminding that the verdict resembled those of the “obscurantist times.”
The verdict may likely spark a reaction from neighboring Greek capital that has always been keen to show its support to the local ethnic Greek minority in Albania.
It is expected that the Greek prime Minister Costas Karamanlis may visit the country and then it is almost very likely that Bollano may be a topic of discussions, or the premier may play the usual game of a visit to the ethnic Greek minority area in southern Gjirokastra district.
Relations between Greece and Albania have been strained periodically since the 1990 fall of communism in the tiny Balkan country because of perceptions of racism and xenophobia in Greece, and over the status and treatment of hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants.
Berisha called court verdict political
Immediately after the sentencing of Himara Mayor Vasil Bollano Prime Minister Sali Berisha reacted by calling the court’s verdict to have “political nuances” which do not serve the people well.
Accused of abuse of posts due to his decision to remove all road signs being only in Albanian and English but not in Greek, Bollano was sentence to six months of imprisonment, a fine of 500,000 ALL and a three year suspension from holding public posts.
Bollano is also head of the ethnic Greek minority Omonia association.
“The interpretation and the law application that may have political and archaic nuances do not serve to the rule of law,” according to his official site.
That is certainly a diplomatic move on the part of the Albanian government just days before the visit of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Sunday.
In what seemed another rushing move from Albania, the parliamentary economic and financial commission approved a deal between the two governments on a delayed payment of an old debt of $48 million to the neighboring country.
