TIRANA, May 17 – Shukri Xhelili, Mayor of Peshkopia in northeastern Albania, was arrested on Monday night on abuse of office charges following a video showing him asking sexual favours from a 20-year old woman in return for a job position.
Initially, authorities decided not to detain him, but a court subsequently ordered his arrest pending trial.
As a former high state official, his case has been taken up by the Serious Crimes Court in Tirana.
The mayor, representing the ruling Socialist Party, was immediately dismissed by the government after the sex scandal video was aired on Thursday night on Ora News TV on the “Unexposed” investigative TV show.
The video showed Xhelili, in his fifties, asking sexual favours from a 20-year old woman in his office in the Peshkopia municipality building and then taking her in his car to a hotel in Tirana where the young woman managed to escape just as he was undressing.
Asked about why she decided to denounce the mayor through secret camera footage, the girl who spoke under condition of anonymity, said she wanted to teach him a lesson for his alleged practice of hiring women in return for sexual favours.
The conversation between the mayor and the girl in the footage video suggests that Xhelili could have used the same technique with other women.
“Because this is something which shouldn’t happen, especially for young women like me who are looking for a job and are exploited this way,” she told Ora News TV.
The family of the girl said that they had received several threats once the video was made public and have asked for police protection.
While the context of the video is evident, Xhelili himself has considered the video “a politically motivated set up”.
Following his dismissal, Justice Minister Ylli Manjani said the government had made the right decision.
“The video speaks for itself, the government has made the right decision. The prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation and it’s the society which judges the other things from a moral point of view. Such scandals deserve an exemplary punishment,” said Manjani.
Xhelili had been in office as Peshkopia Mayor for almost one year after the June 2015 local elections held under the territorial reform which cut the country’s local government units to 61 municipalities, down from a previous 373 municipalities and communes. The municipality of Peshkopi is now expected to hold new mayoral elections.
Back in 2009, Ylli Pango of the Democratic Party was sacked as Culture Minister after a similar video showing him allegedly asking sexual favours from a young woman applying for a job in his ministry.
Back in 2009, Ylli Pango of the Democratic Party was sacked as Culture Minister after a similar video showing him allegedly asking sexual favours from a young woman applying for a job in his ministry.
