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After the scandal in the office, accused of corruption, VOA: SPAK is still investigating Safet Gjicin

After the scandal in the office, accused of corruption, VOA: SPAK is still

In Albania, the resigned mayor of Kukës Municipality, Safet Gjici, was arrested on Saturday afternoon, under the charge of corruption, by order of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Corruption. The investigation against him started last week immediately after a video was published on social networks in which he appeared having sex with a woman in his office. The latter also ended up under house arrest, also suspected of corruption.

Mr. Gjici, who received a new mandate at the head of the Kukes Municipality in the May 14 elections, appears to have been filmed in his office on June 6, around 4:00 p.m. Shortly after the video was released, he announced his resignation in a Facebook post as "a minimal obligation" and publicly apologized to "anyone who saw that ugly video material." The government also announced that it had decided to dismiss him from office.

Mr. Gjici considered the event a trap set up by political opponents, while he wrote that "unfortunately, I fell prey to a trap prepared with details by the same hand of people I faced in the elections".

He also stated that "for some time I have had an intimate relationship with the girl in question". But this appears to have been an attempt to avoid the very charge for which he was arrested today. In fact, the full publication of the video proved that after having sex, he talks with the woman about the financing by the Municipality of a project for the sterilization of street dogs. He even calls the deputy mayor to the office, asking him to follow the practice for approving the project.

Meanwhile, the Special Prosecutor's Office is continuing the investigation to clarify the whole situation, from the reasons for the filming in his office by the woman, the publication, or if there was an attempt to blackmail the mayor through the video./VOA

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