Detained Albanian MP's Brother Absolved of Murder

Forty-one-year-old Lamaj was killed by gunfire from an AK-47 assault rifle after parking his car outside his apartment in the Vasil Shanto neighbourhood of Tirana.

Frroku, a businessman with a history of conflicts with Lamaj, was arrested in Thessaloniki, Greece, one day later and extradited to Albania.

During his 18-year police career, Lamaj had held several important positions in the Albanian police force. He headed the police station of the sixth district of Tirana, before his transfer to the force's general directorate.

Frroku's younger brother, Mark Frroku, an MP in parliament, has been arrested twice in the last two weeks, the first time for perjury concerning allegations of fake murder plot against two MPs.

After being put under house arrest, he was re-arrested again this week, based on an arrest warrant from Belgium where he is accused of a murder in 1999.

A Brussels court judged him guilty of the premeditated murder of an Albanian citizen, Aleksander Kurti, in March 1999, in collaboration with three others.

The MP, who was known by the alias Besnik Morina in Belgium, was sentenced to ten years in prison. He has appealed against the conviction and will face new hearings if extradited.

The Belgian authorities believe Kurti was murdered in a disputes over a prostitution racket that it is thought Arben Frroku ran.