The Court of Appeal for Corruption and Organized Crime has upheld the decision of the First Instance for the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Joana Duro, and the senior official of public services, Laura Shteto.

Members of the Appeal did not accept their request for a reduce of measure than imprisonment.

Earlier, Special Court for Corruption and Organized Crimes decided to release from the cell by assigning house arrest to Vladimir Topin, administrator of the company that won the tender of the Ministry of Health for the supervision of health centers in Tirana and Durrës. Meanwhile, for the engineer of the company “Dricons” shpk, Silvi Shehu, the Special Court decided to arrest him in prison indefinitely. They are accused of active corruption, while the appeal assigned a more reduced measure to the administrator because of his age. The four were arrested on June 2, 2023, after it is suspected that Duro took a bribe of 330,000 lek to favor Vladimir Topi’s company in a tender opened by the Ministry for the supervision of the reconstruction of health centers in Tirana and Durrës.

The value of 330,000 lek, which was mentioned in the wiretapping, was found inside an envelope in the office of the close person of the minister Ogerta Manastirliu, an envelope which Joana Duro said she did not know what was inside.