TIRANA, March 20 – A first instance court in the northwestern city of Lezha has ordered house arrest for local Mayor Fran Frrokaj and nine other district officials after prosecutors ordered their arrests Friday on charges of abuse of power tied to land deal in the municipality’s ShÑ‘ngjin coastline.
Lezha municipality’s in-house lawyer Ardenis Haxhia and expert cartographer Enkelejd Zefi were remanded to jail custody.
The case’s prosecutor had asked for all persons involved to be held under jail custody, local media reports.
Prosecutors believe the officials involved and other residents used abuse of office, falsification of documents and altering of paperwork to embezzle approximately 234,548 square meters of the publicly-owned coastal land in an area called Rana e Hedhun.
The Serious Crimes Prosecution issued arrest mandates on Friday for the municipality’s mayor and Democratic Party (DP) representative Frank Frrokaj, as well as the deputy mayor Enver Hafizi.
Also arrested were the former head of the mortgages office Gjelina Bacaj, who resigned a couple of weeks ago, two other mortgage office workers and two topographers.
After news were made public, DP supporters and family members of the accused protested in front of Lezha’s police station against what they say are “politically orchestrated arrests” and warned the protests will get worse.
The municipality itself also released an official statement in which it denied all accusations towards the officials, saying they were fabricated for public and political consumption.
“We remain worried as to how an administrative investigation, just in its core, was built and is being used for public and political consumption. Mr. Fran Frrokaj remains the legitimate mayor, chosen by this municipality until proven otherwise,” the statement said.
The head of the DP, Albania’s main opposition party, Lulzim Basha, also made a public statement asking for transparent, instead of political, investigation, before meeting with party members in Lezha.
“I want to tell all Albanians that we hope and wish Fran Frrokaj is found innocent. The DP and my stand remain unchanged, everyone should be equal in front of the law, starting from the simplest of citizens to the highest politicians. But we ask for the investigation to be transparent, not political and not biased,” Basha told the press.
The heads of Lezha’s police, however, have said the prosecution’s investigation on the Rana e Hedhun coastline began almost a year ago after citizens’ public denunciations, and that more of these cases are being investigated in the district.
The court session, which after the cases’ prosecutor requested it, was conducted behind closed doors, while DP representatives and supporters alike have said they will organize protests on a bigger scale if there is lack of transparency during the process.
