TIRANA, July 14 – In Albania, former Mayor of Kavaja Elvis Rroshi will have to do 60 days of community service to pay off a sentence given on Friday by the Tirana Court for falsifying official forms.
The court initially upheld the Prosecution’s request for a seven month and 15 day imprisonment sentence, but due to a shortened trial after Rroshi pleaded guilty, the sentence was reduced to five months and was finally converted to community service, as Rroshi had been under house arrest for four months.
The former mayor, elected on behalf of the Socialist Party, is the first official to be convicted under the country’s decriminalization law.
He was charged for keeping information related to his past hidden, such as a conviction for group rape in Italy in 1992, or the fact he was expelled by several European states and had used different names to cover his identity.
Rroshi’s mandate was removed in 2016, and he was then fired to be later arrested by the prosecution.
He initially tried to argue against the measures taken against him by addressing all courts in the country, including the constitutional one, but was forced to accept the prosecution’s findings, justifying himself by saying he was negligent while filling the decriminalization form.
