Prodi, Berisha sign extradition agreement

TIRANA, Dec. 3 – Visiting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, and his host Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, signed an agreement on extradition on Monday, considered highly important by both countries in their fight against organized crime.
Following that, Berisha asked Prodi to urge all his European Union member countries’ counterparts to sign the same agreement with Albania, in a sign of the zero tolerance fight against crime in the tiny Balkan country.
Besides that, the newly-appointed Albanian Justice Minister, Enkeled Alibeaj, also met with the Italian Under-Secretary of Justice, Alberto Maritati, to discuss the agreement.
The agreement will shorten and facilitate extradition procedures between the two countries.
Italy is one of the main countries where hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants live and also a main route of illegal traffic of drugs and arms from Albanian crime gangs.