{"id":62688,"date":"2023-11-14T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T10:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=62688"},"modified":"2023-11-14T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T10:36:19","slug":"2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/","title":{"rendered":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Special Court for Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania handed down a verdict on Monday, sentencing Joana Duro, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, to a four-year prison term.<\/p>\n<p>Duro had been arrested in June alongside another official and two representatives from a private company, all charged with corruption. Due to a streamlined legal process, her original sentence of 4 years was reduced to 2 years and 8 months in prison, coupled with a five-year prohibition on holding any public office.<\/p>\n<p>The arrest unfolded on June 2, just a day after the Ministry of Health announced the winning bidder for the tender overseeing the reconstruction of multiple healthcare centers in Tirana and Durr\u00ebs.<\/p>\n<p>Joana Duro was apprehended in the act, according to the Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office, at her office. Inside, authorities discovered 330,000 Albanian lek (slightly over 3,000 euros), an amount roughly equivalent to half of the tender\u2019s value. Prosecutors contended that these funds were provided to her as a bribe.<\/p>\n<p>Vladimir Topi, the proprietor of the winning company, had reportedly given the money to his company\u2019s engineer, Silvi Shehu, who in turn, had established contact with a ministry official, Laura Sheto, who subsequently delivered the funds to Duro.<\/p>\n<p>Sheto and the representatives from the private company received a reduced sentence of 8 months in prison, down from the initially proposed 1 year, as a result of the expedited trial. Their charges revolved around allegations of active corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Special Court for Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania handed down a verdict on Monday, sentencing Joana Duro, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, to a four-year prison term. Duro had been arrested in June alongside another official and two representatives from a private company, all charged with corruption. Due to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":62689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[3389,270,3630,497,5166,2783,243,151,464],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Special Court for Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania handed down a verdict on Monday, sentencing Joana Duro, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, to a four-year prison term. Duro had been arrested in June alongside another official and two representatives from a private company, all charged with corruption. Due to a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"853\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@euronewsalbania\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Euronews Albania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40904b56ee024949b80be8199e47e27d\"},\"headline\":\"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\"},\"wordCount\":248,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"active corruption\",\"albania\",\"bribe\",\"corruption\",\"Health Ministry\",\"imprisonment\",\"kryesore 1\",\"Kryesoret\",\"tender\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Albania\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\",\"name\":\"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":853,\"caption\":\"View from the building of the Albanian Health Ministry.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"description\":\"Top stories in Albania, Kosovo and the Balkans\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png\",\"width\":280,\"height\":33,\"caption\":\"Euronews Albania\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/euronewsalbania\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40904b56ee024949b80be8199e47e27d\",\"name\":\"Euronews Albania\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/euronews.al\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/author\/xhoi\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania","og_description":"The Special Court for Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania handed down a verdict on Monday, sentencing Joana Duro, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, to a four-year prison term. Duro had been arrested in June alongside another official and two representatives from a private company, all charged with corruption. Due to a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/","og_site_name":"Euronews Albania","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/","article_published_time":"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":853,"url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Euronews Albania","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@euronewsalbania","twitter_site":"@euronewsalbania","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Euronews Albania","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/"},"author":{"name":"Euronews Albania","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40904b56ee024949b80be8199e47e27d"},"headline":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry","datePublished":"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/"},"wordCount":248,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg","keywords":["active corruption","albania","bribe","corruption","Health Ministry","imprisonment","kryesore 1","Kryesoret","tender"],"articleSection":["Albania"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/","name":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry - Euronews Albania","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-14T10:36:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ministria-e-shendetesise.jpg","width":1280,"height":853,"caption":"View from the building of the Albanian Health Ministry."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/2-years-and-8-months-imprisonment-for-former-general-secretary-of-health-ministry\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"2 years and 8 months imprisonment for former General Secretary of Health Ministry"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/","name":"Euronews Albania","description":"Top stories in Albania, Kosovo and the Balkans","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#organization","name":"Euronews Albania","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/logo-mobile-euronews-albania-1.png","width":280,"height":33,"caption":"Euronews Albania"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/euronews.al\/","https:\/\/x.com\/euronewsalbania"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/40904b56ee024949b80be8199e47e27d","name":"Euronews Albania","sameAs":["http:\/\/euronews.al"],"url":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/author\/xhoi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62690,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62688\/revisions\/62690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}