TIRANA, April 28 – An Albanian businessman sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a police detective in 2013 has been arrested in the Netherlands, police sources said on Thursday.
ArbenFrroku, 45, has been reportedly arrested in The Netherlands using fake Greek documents and detained on behalf of Albanian justice authorities who had issued an international arrest warrant on him and have now initiated extradition procedures.
It was former Prime Minister SaliBerisha who a couple of days ago said Frroku had been detained in The Netherlands, accusing Albanian Interior Minister SaimirTahiri of withholding information to Dutch authorities to make possible his release.
Frroku was sentenced to life imprisonment in mid-2015 for the killing of police detective Dritan Lamaj by the Serious Crimes Appeals Court, overturning an earlier acquittal. The verdict came after a lower court released Frroku three months ago, finding him not guilty. Frroku used the window between the two court rulings to leave the country.
Detective Lamaj was 41 in February 2013 when he was shot dead in his car as he traveled to his home in the outskirts of Tirana. His relatives reacted with anger when Frroku was first acquitted.
Frroku’s brother, Mark, a former member of the Albanian parliament, is currently in jail facing extradition to Belgium where authorities want to try him in association with a murder. The killing happened years ago as part of a clash over controlling a prostitution network in Brussels, according the Belgian warrant. He is also accused of tax evasion by Albanian authorities.
Mark Frroku was the leader of the Christian Democratic Party until late 2015, formerly associated with the ruling party Socialist-led coalition, which has since called on prosecutors to fully investigate and on the justice system to punish any wrongdoings.
The association of the Socialists with the Frroku brothers had become the focus of criticism for the opposition and what it says is its drive to decriminalize Albanian politics.
