The "Toyota Yaris" file/SPAK ends the investigations, sends the 4 defendants to trial

2025-01-04 13:21:00, Aktualitet CNA

The "Toyota Yaris" file/SPAK ends the investigations, sends the 4

SPAK completes the investigations and sends for trial 4 defendants for the criminal offense of active and passive corruption of justice officials

The Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime has completed the preliminary investigations for criminal proceedings no. 26, dated 07.02.2024, registered for the criminal offences: "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", "Active corruption of a judge , the prosecutor and other justice functionaries", "Passive corruption of judges, prosecutors and other functionaries of justice bodies", "Disclosure of acts or secret data" and "Trafficking of narcotics", provided by articles 245/1, 319, 319/ç, 295/a paragraph (3) and 283/a of the Criminal Code .

For this criminal proceeding, during the preliminary investigation phase, all possible and necessary investigative actions have been carried out, including; obtaining information from foreign law enforcement agencies, obtaining evidence from the judicial authorities of other countries, searching, disclosing and managing the necessary documentation, questioning persons who may have knowledge of the circumstances of the investigation, as well as a detailed analysis of the data, of the administered documentation, as well as the evidence collected during the investigations was carried out.

From the investigative actions carried out in connection with this criminal proceeding, as well as from the sources of evidence collected and administered during the preliminary investigations, it has been proven that the defendants; Astrit Vladi, Radovan Çela, Eriona Daupaj and Aurel Zarka in cooperation with each other, in some cases, have offered and promised irregular benefits to exercise influence on justice officials, have accepted irregular promises and benefits to exercise influence on illegally to officials of justice, have offered irregular benefits to officials of justice, as well as have requested irregular benefits to perform actions related to the function and their duty, according to the respective episodes and charges, for each of them.

At the time of committing the illegal actions, the defendant Aurel Zarka was a prosecutor in the Prosecutor's Office near the Court of First Instance of Vlora, the defendant Eriona Daupaj was a judicial police officer in the former Prosecutor's Office near the Court of First Instance First for Serious Crimes and then judicial police officer in the Special Prosecutor's Office, while the defendant Radovan Çela was in the capacity of the defender of citizens Alfred Vladi, etc.

Specifically, actions of exercising illegal influence, active and passive corruption of justice officials were carried out in relation to the following criminal cases, according to the charges and respective episodes for the defendants:

Criminal proceedings no. 130 of 2018 of the Prosecution at the Court of First Instance for Serious Crimes, in charge of citizens Alfred Vladi, Elvis Vladi and Alban Mollaymeri, accused of the criminal offenses "Cleaning the proceeds of a criminal offense or criminal activity" , carried out in cooperation in the form of "Structured criminal group", provided by articles 287/1, 333/a/1 e (2) and 334/1 of the Criminal Code.

Criminal proceedings no. 71 of 2020 of the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance, Tirana, in charge of citizens Alfred Vladi, Elvis Vladi and Alban Mollaymeri, accused of the criminal offense "Failure to declare money and valuables at the border", of carried out in cooperation, provided by articles 179/a and 25 of the Criminal Code, including the judicial session of re-evaluation/replacement of security measures dated 17.01.2020 held at the Court of First Instance, Tirana, the phase of preliminary investigations, the phase of appointing the judge of the preliminary hearing and the conduct of the preliminary hearing at the Court of First Instance, Tirana.

The execution of several requests for legal aid sent by the Belgian justice authorities, specifically by the judge of the preliminary investigations at the Court of First Instance in Brussels, Belgium, to the criminal proceedings in charge of the citizens, Alfred Vladi, Elvis Vladi, etc., executed from the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance for Serious Crimes as well as from the Special Prosecutor's Office.

Property proceeding no. 1 dated 20.12.2019 of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime, developed on the basis of law no. 10192 dated 03.12.2009 "On the prevention and attack of organized crime, trafficking, corruption and other crimes through preventive measures against wealth", for the assets owned by citizens Alfred Vladi, Elvis Vladi and Alban Mollaymer.

Property proceeding no. 24 dated 19.02.2020 of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime, developed on the basis of Normative Act No. 1 dated 31.01.2020, for the assets owned by citizen Suel Çela alias Marjus Lulaj.

The criminal case against the citizen Xhoi Mansaku, accused of the criminal offense "Theft" remaining in the attempt, provided by articles 134/1 and 22 of the Criminal Code, tried in the Court of First Instance of Tirana.

Non-initiation of criminal proceedings for criminal reference no. 669 dated 26.03.2020 sent by the Himarë Police Station, to the Prosecutor's Office at the Court of First Instance, Vlorë.

The criminal case against citizens Altin Veizaj, etc., accused of the criminal offense "Cultivation of narcotics" carried out in cooperation, provided for by article 284/2 of the Criminal Code, tried in the Court of First Instance, Vlora.

On 30.12.2024, the Special Prosecutor's Office sent to the Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime, the request to send to trial criminal case no. 26 of 2024 against the defendants:

Radovan Çela, accused of the criminal offenses "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", committed 5 times, in collaboration 4 times, as well as "Active corruption of the judge, prosecutor and other justice officials". carried out 2 times, 1 time in cooperation, provided by articles 245/1, paragraph (1) and 25 (according to the content before changes to the law no. 43/2021) and articles 319 and 25 of the Criminal Code.

Astrit Vladi, accused of the criminal offenses "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", committed in cooperation, committed 4 times, as well as "Active corruption of the judge, prosecutor and other justice officials". carried out in collaboration, provided for by articles 245/1, paragraph (1) and 25 (according to the content before changes with law no. 43/2021) and articles 319 and 25 of the Criminal Code.

Aurel Zarka, accused of the criminal offenses "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", committed 3 times, in collaboration 2 times, "Active corruption of the judge, prosecutor and other justice officials", committed in cooperation, as well as "Passive corruption of judges, prosecutors and other officials of justice bodies", provided by articles 245/1, paragraph (2) and 25 of Criminal Code (according to the content before the changes with law no. 43/2021), articles 319 and 25 and article 319/ç of the Criminal Code

Eriona Daupaj, accused of the criminal offenses "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", committed 4 times, in cooperation 2 times, "Disclosure of acts or secret data", as well as "Passive corruption of judges, prosecutors and other officials of the justice bodies", carried out 2 times, provided by articles 245/1, paragraph (2) and 25 (according to the content before changes with law no. 43/2021), article 295/a paragraph (3) and 319/ç of the Criminal Code.

With the decision of the prosecutors of the case, on 26.12.2024, it was decided to divide the criminal case and separate the acts related to a series of communications made by the defendants, related to the facts and circumstances mentioned above, as well as in relating to conversations related to facts and other circumstances that have emerged during investigative actions. Specifically, from the acts of this criminal proceeding, the acts were separated and the criminal proceedings were recorded as follows:

First, it has been decided to separate and segregate the acts related to the conversations conducted by the defendants and other persons administered during the investigations, in the content of which other persons are mentioned in the capacity of prosecutors, judges, other officials of the bodies of of justice, who are alleged to have requested or received irregular benefits.

Secondly, it has been decided to separate and separate the acts related to the conversations and communications that were administered during the investigations, from which there are data that other persons may have exerted illegal influence on the persons who exercised the function of the prosecutor, the judge or officials of other justice bodies.

Thirdly, it has been decided to separate and separate the acts, since from the sources of evidence collected during the investigations for this criminal proceeding, data and suspicions have been created that actions containing the elements of other criminal offenses may have been committed.

Regarding these episodes, criminal proceedings no. 26/1 dated 26.12.2024 have been registered and further investigative actions are being carried out./ CNA