Officials of the Municipality of Dimal are punished for bribery with the construction permit

2023-10-31 20:44:00, Aktualitet CNA

Officials of the Municipality of Dimal are punished for bribery with the

The Special Court of First Instance announced on Tuesday, October 31, the sentences against four officials of the Municipality of Dimal, accused of abuse of office and corruption, as well as against the manager of a private entity and an engineer, after they were accused of involvement in illegal actions in granting construction permits against bribes three years ago.

After getting acquainted with the final conclusions of the defendant Valentina Jançe, who asked for innocence or an alternative punishment, the jury chaired by Flora Hajredinaj decided to declare the six defendants guilty, who have accepted the shortened trial benefiting from the reduction of one third of punishment.

The head of services in Dimal Municipality, Arben Guraj, was found guilty of the criminal offense of "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions", carried out in collaboration; "Passive... and active corruption", as well as "Unauthorized production and possession of hunting and sporting weapons". He was sentenced to a total of 4 years in prison, which was reduced to 2 years and 8 months in prison upon application of a summary judgment.

The defendant Altin Pali, acting director of the Urban Planning Office in this municipality, accused of "Abuse of duty" and "Passive corruption...", was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment and on application of a shortened trial to 2 years of imprisonment. For the same criminal offenses, the defendant Valentina Jançe, in charge of the urban planning sector at the Dimal Municipality, was finally sentenced to 1 year and 4 months. Agim Çunaj, responsible for IKMT near this municipality, was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months for abuse of office. The accused officials were deprived of the right to hold public functions for 5 years.

The manager of the private entity, Vait Koshi, who is accused of "active corruption..." was sentenced to 1 year in prison, while the engineer Arjan Demiri was sentenced to 8 months in prison. Against these two defendants, it was decided to cancel the security measure, as it turns out that they have exceeded the measure of punishment given by the court.

The court confiscated an amount of 50,000 lek, which is considered proven to be the value that was given in the form of a bribe.

Investigations against Dimal Municipality officials began on November 25, 2020, after a citizen denounced the destruction of his property by the local unit for the construction of a flower garden. But the investigation showed that the municipality had given a permit to build on this property. The destruction of the whistleblower's property resulted as favoritism and not with the aim of expanding public spaces, as claimed by the Dimal Municipality, whose officials, who were also taken as defendants, were accused of granting construction permits against a bribe./ Reporteri.al