TIRANA, Aug. 27 – Albania’s opposition Democratic Party released on Monday several documents by Greek authorities, according to which the new Vora Mayor Agim Kajmaku was arrested in Greece under the name of Jorgo Toto for counterfeiting coins and after being released he escaped trial by returning home.
Kajmaku, for his part, immediately denied the allegations, saying he was consistent with previous statements that he had never been convicted or expelled from Greece or any other European Union state.
After days of publicly pressing charges against Kajmaku and requesting the Prosecutor’s Office to launch verifications, the DP today released documents that allegedly confirm Kajmaku’s involvement in a crime he did not declare in his decriminalization forms.
“Agim Kajmaku, alias Jorgo Toto, born in 1971, resident in Tirana, Albania, was arrested in fragrance in the Greek state, in the area of Ioannina, on 14.01.2003 for the offense of ‘use and distribution of counterfeit banknotes’ He was arrested in fragrance, escaping from the territory of the Greek state. The crime was committed during a transaction to purchase seeds and other plants, and Agim Kajmaku used the false identity of Jorgo Toto, with father’s name Thanas and mother’s name Parashivi,” DP member Gazmend Bardhi said, pointing to a June 2003 Ioannina Prosecution and Court decision.
According to the DP, Kajmaku, who used a different identity at that time, that of Jorgo Toto, was obliged to appear to court and only months later the Greek authorities ordered his imprisonment, but in the meantime Kajmaku had returned to Albania.
“According to Greek criminal law, the court has suspended the trial until this citizen is arrested or has an accurate address to communicate the charge. According to the Greek law in this type of trial, the citizen must be present at the trial, because it is a serious crime. I must emphasize once again that the arrest warrant of the Greek court has not been executed, since citizen Jorgo Toto was not found in Greece. According to the official documentation of Greek authorities, it turns out that Agim Kajmaku alias Jorgo Toto evaded Greek justice to face a charge that foresees at least ten years in prison,” Bardhi said.
Earlier, Kajmaku stated that he had never been convicted or expelled from any EU country, not even Greece. He admitted that he changed his name to Jorgo Toto, but maintained the same paternity and motherhood, while in documents released by the DP, the person Jorgo Toto, who accordingly corresponds with the mayor of Vora, has another fatherhood and motherhood.
Kajmaku has also published a document issued by the Greek authorities, which, according to him, proves that he has no convictions or criminal proceedings.
On Monday he denied the allegations, saying he stands by statements made earlier and blaming the accusations against him as part of a political attack.
“I assure you, first and foremost, the citizens of Vora that I stand by what I have stated earlier about this attack. I have never been involved in trafficking and crime,” Kajmaku wrote in a Facebook post, while the Socialist Party officially remained silent in the debate over its representative’s past.
Following Kajmaku’s reaction, Head of DP Lulzim Basha returned to the case.
“Agim Kajmaku can’t play the victim! He must confront Albanian and Greek justice for concrete facts made public by the Democratic Party and for which he has not spoken a word. Before he leaves the Vora City Hall in handcuffs, Agim Kajmaku has to answer a very simple question: Is he the person arrested in flagrance in January 2003 by the name of Jorgo Toto?” Basha wrote.
It now seems that everything remains to be clarified by the fingerprint collision. The prosecution has summoned Kajmaku to make their deposition, in order to send him to the Greek authorities to compare them with the person arrested in 2003. If this is proved, Kajmaku would become the second Socialist mayor with past precedents, after Shkodra SP mayor Valdrin Pjetri, elected in the debated June 30 elections, resigned due to allegations of a criminal past in Italy which the prosecution is investigating.
