UK Detains Italian Businessman Sought in Albania

The Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti, who has invested in media and energy sectors in Albania, has been detained in London and told to go to Albania, where courts seek his arrest for money laundering and tax evasion.

The Albanian courts have issued an international arrest warrant in accordance with extradition treaties that the country has signed with international partners.

Sources in the General Prosecutor Office told BIRN on Wednesday that the British authorities had ordered him stay in home confinement and go to Albania by December 15, or they will extradite him there.

The businessman is well known in England as owner of a famous football club. He bought East London's Leyton Orient club last year.

It is unclear whether Becchetti will respect the UK orders, or try to escape and stay out of Albania as he has done until now.

It will not be the first time that people who have hidden in the UK from an arrest warrant in Albania have found ways to not go back to the country to face charges.

In December 2011, Ilir Kumbaro, a former officer of Albania's National Intelligence Service, was detained in London.

An Albanian court convicted him for the torture and disappearance of an Albanian-Macedonian businessman, Remzi Hoxha, in 1995. 

Just when the British authorities were ready to extradite him in Albania, Kumbaro escaped and he has not been found up to now.

Becchetti started his first investments attempts in Albania in 2000 with a project to import Italian waste to the country.

He became well known when he obtained the Kalivaci hydropower plant in a concession agreement signed between the government and the Italian company B.E.G for the construction of a plant on the...