Albania’s Intelligence Chief Suspended for Allegedly Aiding Crime Group

The head of Albania’s State Intelligence Service, Vlora Hyseni. Photo: LSA. Anti-corruption prosecutors on Tuesday placed Vlora Hyseni, head of Albania’s State Intelligence Service, SHISH, under house arrest and suspended her for allegedly revealing state secrets and assisting an offender. The Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organised Crime, SPAK, has also questioned the former Chief of Police, Ilir Proda, it announced. Media reported that Hyseni is not currently in Albania. SPAK added that a sector head of the Forensic Police and a businessman had been arrested in relation to the same case. Hyseni is being investigated over a corruption scandal surrounding tenders of the national agency overseeing the development of state information systems, the National Agency for Information Society, AKSHI. Hyeni has headed the SHISH, the most important institution handling national security, since 2023, and her alleged involvement with the AKSHI corruption scandal potentially marks the most serious crisis over national security in the country’s history. Hyseni was appointed head of SHISH after serving as Prime Minister’s Edi Rama national security adviser for about two years. She had earlier been deputy director of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, KIA, but was dismissed from that post in June 2021 by Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Her appointment as head of SHISH in 2023 was controversial because of her Kosovo citizenship and the unclear reason for her dismissal from Kosovo’s top security institution. Meanwhile, former police chief Proda was seen at SPAK offices on Tuesday where, according to the media, he was questioned in relation to the AKSHI scandal and his house was searched. AKSHI coordinates the development of state information systems and digitalisation procedures and administers the state public services portal, e-Albania. The agency has managed a massive budget; some 19 of its procedures investigated by SPAK alone had an estimated total value of 5.9 billion lek, or about 59 million euros. The SPAK investigation alleges that AKSHI’s director, Mirlinda Karcanaj, and her deputy, Hava Delibashi, placed many of these funds in the hands of a group linked to organised crime, pre-selected tender winners and ensured the diversion of tens of millions of euros into the accounts of IT businessman Ermal Beqiraj and Ergys Agasi. Agasi is accused of forming a criminal group with Beqiraj to rig and extort tenders from the AKSHI, even using violence and hostage-taking. Agasi was arrested in August 27 after being on the run for months. Beqiraj was arrested earlier in France on July 24 while flying a light aircraft through restricted airspace over a nuclear power plant. Karcanaj, Delibashi and Agasi all deny charges while Beqiraj is still under arrest in France. SPAK alleges that he transferred a portion of his illicit proceeds to France, using the cash to purchase a château, two apartments and motor vehicles, while also depositing over 2 million euros in bank accounts. The alleged involvement of top security officials in this scheme, providing criminals with information and assisting them, has left many in the country in shock. “Whenever something happens, we say: ‘This is the end; nothing worse than this could possibly happen.’ But in this country, the problem is that even the end has no end,” Mentor Kikia, a journalist and analyst, wrote on Facebook. The opposition has urged President Bajram Begaj to call an urgent meeting of the State Security Council. Ruling Socialist Party MPs are urging caution. “We must await the final judicial verdict. Nothing is true until proven by the courts,” Blendi Cuci, a Socialist MP, told a meeting of parliament’s Committee on Internal Affairs and Defence, after opposition MPs asked for the issue to be urgently included in parliamentary sessions.