Aleksander Kurti

Arben Frroku is believed to have fled Albania following the Serious Crimes Court's first instance ruling on April 3rd, which found him not guilty of the murder of a policeman.

Genc Gjokutaj, his lawyer, said that the court had been under political pressure and he would appeal to the Supreme Court.

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.

Albania's police chief has resigned, saying in a letter to Prime Minister Edi Rama and Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri that he felt responsible for the Tirana Interpol office's failure to forward an extradition request from Belgium to the prosecutor's office.

Frroku, who is already under house arrest on different charges, has been convicted by Brussels' first-instance court of the premeditated murder of Albanian citizen Aleksander Kurti in March 1999, in collaboration with three others.