Former mayor of Durrës Vangjush Dako has requested to be released from prison.
Through his defense lawyer, Dako appealed for release while the Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime had ruled to uphold imprisonment until investigations conclude, in a marathon session on June 8th.
The lot has not yet been cast in the Court of Appeal to appoint the judge and the date when the hearing will be considered.
Vangjush Dako was arrested by order of the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPAK) on the suspicion of abuse of office in two cases.
The first case involves a building that started with a seven-floors plan in 2010 and was completed with 11 floors in 2014, and was later damaged by the earthquake in 2019.
The second case concerns a tender dated March 25th, 2014 for the beach promenade in Durrës, where a miscalculation led to the 10-fold increase in the value of the tender. Although the High State Control had requested in 2015 that measures be taken to recover the damage, the company paid off 40% of the remaining value, causing a damage of 18 million Albanian lek to the state.
In 2019, Vangjush Dako was designated non-grata by the United States, for “his involvement in major cases of corruption”.
