The Special Prosecution Office in Albania announced on Tuesday that the head of the Vlora Prosecutor’s Office, Aurel Zarka, who was arrested on Monday along with three other individuals who have been declared wanted—former judicial police officer Eriona Dautaj, lawyer Radovan Çela, and entrepreneur Astrit Vladi—have intervened by offering and receiving favours in several criminal investigations to ease the positions of the accused.
The official statement explains, “In cooperation and in some cases, they offered and promised irregular benefits to influence justice officials, accepted promises and received irregular benefits to exert influence over justice officials, offered irregular benefits to justice officials, and requested irregular benefits to perform actions related to their functions and duties, according to the episodes and accusations respectively for each of them.”
The cases involve eight instances that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, have been substantiated. At least four cases are related to what is known as the Toyota Auris case, concerning two vehicles that arrived from Belgium at the Port of Durrës in 2018, within which €3.4 million was found.
Entrepreneur Vladi is the brother of one of the two suspects in the case, while lawyer Çela has been their legal representative. Former judicial police officer Dautaj is reported to have been involved in the investigation of the case.
Two other cases are related to matters that were under investigation by the Vlora Prosecutor’s Office and, apparently, involve Prosecutor Zarka, who is also believed to be involved in a third case.
According to the Special Prosecution’s announcement, Zarka is suspected of committing the criminal offenses of “Exercising illegal influence over individuals performing public functions”, committed three times, twice in collaboration; “Active corruption of judges, prosecutors, and other justice officials”, committed in collaboration; and “Passive corruption of judges, prosecutors, and other justice officials”.
Just a month ago, he successfully passed the first phase of the re-evaluation process and was confirmed in his position by the Independent Qualification Commission.
According to local media, the discovery of this case was made possible following the decryption by foreign authorities of phone conversations conducted through the encrypted Sky and EncroChat applications.
“Over a period of several months, necessary investigative actions were carried out, including gathering information from foreign law enforcement agencies, obtaining evidence from the justice authorities of other states, seeking, discovering, and administering the necessary documentation, as well as detailed analysis of the data and documentation that was administered,” announced the Special Prosecution Office.
