In Albania, the Special Prosecutor's Office announced on Tuesday that the head of the Vlora Prosecutor's Office Aurel Zarka, arrested the day before, and the other three wanted persons, the former judicial police officer Eriona Dautaj, the lawyer Radovan Çela and the entrepreneur Astrit Vladi, have intervened by offering and receiving favors, in some cases of criminal investigations, to facilitate the positions of accused persons. “In cooperation and in some cases, they have offered and promised irregular benefits to exert influence on justice officials, they have accepted promises and have accepted irregular benefits to exercise influence on justice officials, they have offered irregular benefits to officials of justice justice, as well as have requested irregular benefits to perform actions related to their function and duty, according to the respective episodes and charges for each of them“, the official announcement explains.
It is about 8 cases that, according to the Prosecutor's Office, have been proven. At least four cases are related to what is known as the Toyota Auris case, two vehicles arrived from Belgium at the Port of Durrës in 2018, inside which 3.4 million euros were found.
Entrepreneur Vladi is the brother of one of the two suspects in the case, while lawyer Çela was their legal representative. Meanwhile, the former officer of the Dautaj Judicial Police, it is learned that she was involved in the investigation of the case.
Two other cases are related to issues that have been under investigation by the Prosecutor's Office of Vlora, and which apparently are the ones where the head of the Prosecutor's Office Zarka, who is thought to be involved in a third case, may have been involved. According to the announcement of the Special Prosecutor's Office, he is suspected of criminal offenses “Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions”, committed three times, committed in cooperation twice; “Active corruption of judges, prosecutors and other officials of justice”, carried out in cooperation, and “Passive corruption of judges, prosecutors and other officials of justice bodies”“. Just a month ago, he successfully passed the first stage of the re-evaluation process, while being confirmed in office by the Independent Qualification Commission.
According to the local media, the discovery of this case was made possible after the analysis by foreign authorities of the conversational phones developed through the encrypted application Sky and EncroChat. “For a period of several months, the necessary investigative actions were carried out, including obtaining information from foreign law enforcement agencies, obtaining evidence from the judicial authorities of other countries, searching, discovering and managing the necessary documentation, as well as analyzing with details of the data and documentation that has been administered“, announced the Special Prosecutor's Office.
