Adriatik Llalla

Italian authorities arrested Albania's fugitive former General Prosecutor, Adriatik Lllalla, in Rome, on 10 December, Albania's Special Prosecution Against Organised Crime and Corruption, SPAK, confirmed to BIRN on Monday.

Concerns have been raised that Albania did not immediately ask Interpol to issue an international 'red notice' for the arrest of former General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla immediately after he disappeared following the court verdict confirming his two-year prison sentence for illegally concealing assets.

Adriatik Llalla, 52, a former General Prosecutor of Albania, was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison and his assets confiscated after being found guilty of not declaring his wealth and other irregularities on asset declarations. He becomes one of the highest officials in the country to be found guilty of such charges.

The US embassy in Tirana said on Tuesday that it is working on a blacklist of current and former officials in Albania who it considers corrupt and to be working against the interests of the United States.

The State Department announced on Monday that businessman and politician Tom Doshi, one of the wealthiest MPs in the Albanian parliament, has been barred from entering the US, along with his immediate family.

The State Department alleged in a statement that Doshi's ban was "due to his involvement in significant corruption".

The US State Department on Wednesday announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had "designated" Adriatik Llalla, 49, and his family as corrupt foreign officials, thereby banning Llalla from entering the country.

The five-year mandate of the General Prosecutor in Albania is ending without any agreement on a successor, which is expected to add to the existing tensions between ruling and opposition parties.

Adriatik Llalla assumed his five-year post on December 7, 2012 after serving as head of the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets.

According to Albania's prosecutor-general, Adriatik Llalla, U.S. Ambassador in Tirana Donald Lu is guilty of "undiplomatic attacks and blackmail."

The ambassador previously accused him of hampering the judicial reform that is essential before talks can start on EU membership, the AP reported on Thursday.

As Albania starts an important process of vetting judges and prosecutors and sets up new justice institutions, the US ambassador to Tirana, Donal Lu, and the General Prosecutor, Adriatik Llalla, have exchanged heated accusations about judicial reform.