The former chief prosecutor of Albania has been sentenced to two years in prison for hiding money involved in illegally owned properties.
Adriatik Llalla, who served as Albania’s prosecutor general during 2012-2017, also had his own property confiscated by judges and is barred from holding any public post for five years.
In May, he was convicted and sentenced by an Albanian court that handles top officials’ corruption cases.
The court found the former prosecutor guilty of hiding property and giving false information on the asset declarations that officials must submit every year.
He had failed to justify how he had financed the purchase of 5.4 acres of land and a new apartment, as well as his family’s expenses in the United States and Germany.
The Tirana Appeals Court rejected Llalla’s appeal on Wednesday and upheld the verdict.
“Adriatik Llalla has committed the penal crime and should be held accountable penally,” Judge Nertina Kosova said.
Llalla was not present at the court for the decision. His lawyer Sokol Hazizaj said he knew that the former prosecutor was in hospital but could not specify whether that was in Albania or abroad.
Corruption in senior officials has long plagued Albania’s democratic, economic and social development. Many judges and prosecutors have been dismissed for alleged corruption and illegally acquiring property and money.
Llalla was the first high-ranking person to be sentenced by newly formed judicial institutions that were established to address the issue.
