Albania is pursuing the former intelligence chief. She returned to house arrest, and messages to a fugitive businessman leaked from the case file

On Monday, Albania’s Special Court against Corruption and Organized Crime ordered Vlora Hyseni, director of the state intelligence service SHISH, to be placed under house arrest and suspended from her post. The Special Prosecutor’s Office SPAK suspects her of two criminal offences — disclosing a state secret and aiding a criminal offender, specifically by helping businessman Ergys Agasi evade arrest through information she provided. He had been hiding for approximately eight months before his arrest. Balkan Insight ↗ Three items were added overnight on Thursday: an expert reading of the impact on the security apparatus, a French weekly that brought the AKSHI case to the attention of foreign readers, and the 117th protest in front of Rama’s office, from which police took a journalist away.

The measure could not be carried out during the day on Tuesday. Hyseni was not found at home or in the country: according to Albanian media, she was in Baku at a forum organised by Azerbaijan’s state security service, which, according to the organiser, was attended by nearly six hundred representatives of security and intelligence services from more than one hundred countries. APA ↗ Prime Minister Edi Rama dismissed her that same day. Albeu ↗ She eventually returned in the evening: according to Albanian media, she reported to the Kosovo authorities at Pristina airport, who handed her over to Albanian police at the Vërmica border crossing, and she was taken to Tirana and placed under house arrest. That same evening, President Bajram Begaj signed a decree dismissing her at the prime minister’s proposal, and the service is temporarily being led by the director of her operations department, Elvis Lila. Balkanweb ↗ Gazeta Shqiptare ↗ Balkanweb ↗ On Thursday, 24 September, she appeared for questioning at SPAK, confronted a journalist outside the court who asked her about the allegations, and further messages from her to Agasi leaked from the case file. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗ Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

Two charges and eight months on the run

Decision no. 67 of 21 September concerns more than just the head of the service. The same ruling remanded Fatjon Kalluçi, head of the Institute of Scientific Police’s sector, in custody on the same charge of disclosing a state secret, along with Embro Sulejmani, an employee of the Kodra e Kuajve agrotourism complex. Balkanweb ↗

According to Albanian media, Sulejmani was supposed to have deleted security-camera footage near government villas in Durrës, where Agasi was allegedly hiding. Searches also led to a villa complex in the Shkozet district. The apartment of former state police director Ilir Produ was also searched, and his phone was seized, but no personal precautionary measure was imposed on him. Agasi was detained in Durrës on 26 August, and a former police officer who was accompanying him was remanded in custody along with him. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

The charges against Hyseni are based on Articles 320/2 and 295/a/1 of Albania’s Criminal Code. The prosecution has not yet disclosed exactly what she was supposed to hand over or through which channel — the official announcement indicates only that the suspicion concerns information that helped Agasi evade arrest. BIRN Albania ↗

Excerpts from the SPAK case file, published by the Balkanweb website on Wednesday, suggest what they may have discussed. In them, Hyseni writes to Agasi, who was then on the run, about her schedule, including meetings with the prime minister (“Tomorrow I have to meet the prime minister at 8:30”) and meetings with foreign partners. In another message, she tells him that the director of the state police, Skënder Hita, had summoned her for Monday, adding: “Let’s hope the prime minister ordered him to do it.” According to the published excerpts, she also discussed with him the situation in the governing Socialist Party, for example that Taulant Balla would become speaker of parliament. This is a selection made by the editorial staff, not the full case file, and its individual messages have no evident context. Balkanweb ↗ Balkanweb ↗

On Thursday, Gazeta Shqiptare published further messages from the SPAK case file, according to which Hyseni and Agasi may also have been linked by personal feelings. “Don’t use the other number tonight, the boys are already interested in it. Sleep peacefully. I love you!” she wrote to him in one of them. Asked whether her people were in danger that night, she replied: “Sleep peacefully, darling, I’ll switch off all the state’s radars because of you.” The newspaper did not say when the messages were written, and here too this is an editorial selection, not the full case file. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

The AKSHI case: €59 million and pressure on competitors

The AKSHI agency administers state information systems — in other words, the registry through which virtually all of Albania’s electronic administration operates. SPAK is examining nineteen procurement procedures with a total ceiling of approximately 5.9 billion lek, or roughly €59 million. According to the prosecution, the tenders were manipulated in favour of predetermined winners and inflated contract values. Balkan Insight ↗

The prosecution says the group used more than paper tricks. According to SPAK, this included intimidation, violence and deprivation of liberty directed at representatives of competing companies, whom they allegedly forced to withdraw objections to the tender results. The agency’s director-general Mirlinda Karçanaj and her deputy Hava Delibashi were placed under house arrest, and Karçanaj resigned; Igli Tafa replaced her. The courts later eased their house arrest to a reporting obligation and a travel ban. Both deny the charges. Balkan Insight ↗

The second man whom the prosecution identifies as part of the group’s core, businessman Ermal Beqiraj, was detained in France on 24 July — during an unauthorised flight over a nuclear power plant. According to SPAK, he bought a mansion, two apartments and vehicles with the proceeds and deposited more than €2 million into accounts. Balkan Insight ↗

On Thursday evening, the case reached the foreign press. The French weekly L’Express described the investigation into AKSHI tenders, noting that AKSHI is behind a large part of Albania’s digital transformation and is supervised directly by Prime Minister Edi Rama, for whom modernising the state has been a flagship project since he took office in 2013. The magazine places the SHISH chief’s alleged disclosure of classified information to unauthorised persons in this context. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

From Pristina to Tirana

Hyseni’s biography is unusual for this post in its own right. She was born in Kosovo in 1984, holds Kosovan and Albanian citizenship, and studied law and international relations. She joined Kosovo’s intelligence agency AKI in 2010, became deputy director in February 2019, and led the agency for a time after Kreshnik Gashi’s departure at the turn of 2020 and 2021. BIRN Albania ↗

Read also: Albania detains wanted man in the incinerator case. That same evening, people took to the streets demanding Rama’s arrest

On 30 June 2021, President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti dismissed her. They did not disclose the reason; Kosovo media at the time wrote of concerns about the handling of classified information. A few months later, Edi Rama appointed her as his national security adviser, and on 17 March 2023 nominated her to head SHISH, saying she was “a complete guarantee” of the service’s reform. Opposition MP Gazment Bardhi objected, pointing specifically to her dismissal in Pristina. President Bajram Begaj appointed her by decree on 3 April 2023. Before turning forty, she became the youngest SHISH chief in history. Albeu ↗

What the allies are reading into it

Albania has been a NATO member since 2009, and SHISH exchanges classified material with allied services. That is precisely why the opposition is calling on President Begaj to convene the National Security Council immediately and explain whether classified information or the security institutions themselves were compromised. Tirana Times calls it one of the most serious blows to the country’s security institutions in its modern history. Tirana Times ↗

Lawyer Eugen Beci described the scale of the blow in a discussion on SYRI TV on Thursday evening. In his view, it is unprecedented for the head of an intelligence service to be arrested while directly in office, and he says that the “pyramid of information” has collapsed because the intelligence chief stands at its apex. He points out that information from SHISH supplies both the police and the prosecution, so in his view damage to this structure harms the functioning of the entire security system. This is a lawyer’s assessment in a television debate, not a finding by a state institution. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

So far, the allies’ response has been mostly silence. During a visit to Korçë, Italy’s ambassador in Tirana, Marco Alberti, said that Rome was “closely following” the protests, but immediately added that commenting on them was not the ambassador’s job. Asked about Hyseni’s house arrest, he said he could give no answer because his remit was bilateral cooperation. Instead, he spoke about Italian investment in Albania worth around €1 billion and six to seven hundred new jobs. Balkanweb ↗

Rama distanced himself from his nominee with a formula repeated in Tirana whenever an official is prosecuted: the innocence or guilt of an associate facing charges is an individual matter before the prosecution and the court. After returning to Tirana, he wants to agree on a new director with the president. Blendi Cuci, an MP from the governing Socialist Party, called for waiting for the court’s final verdict. Balkan Insight ↗ Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

The opposition is going further. Sali Berisha is demanding Rama’s immediate resignation and an international arrest warrant for Hyseni. Former Democratic Party MP Ervin Salianji says the service has become an intelligence service for crime — although he himself served a sentence for false accusation in the Babale case and was released on parole in July 2025. Balkanweb ↗ These are political statements by a party whose own leader faces a SPAK indictment. Given that the prosecution has now reached the head of the intelligence service, they have something to rely on — but they are not evidence. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗ After the messages were published, Berisha claimed that Rama was trying to portray them as “an affair”, although, according to him, Hyseni made every decision at the prime minister’s instruction. He provided no evidence for this. Balkanweb ↗

The case immediately spilled onto the streets. On Thursday, 24 September, the 117th protest against the government took place; it began in Skanderbeg Square and continued with a march to the prime minister’s office, ending with protesters chanting “More tomorrow”. According to Balkanweb, public discontent intensified precisely after the scandal surrounding Hyseni. Balkanweb ↗ Police took journalist Vjolanda Peca of the Citizens.al portal away from the same protest, where she had been reporting. The Albanian Journalists’ Association condemned this, called for her immediate release and a public explanation from the state police of the legal basis, and warned that it was the second such incident involving the same journalist in a few months. Balkanweb ↗

On Thursday, when Hyseni arrived for questioning, journalist Klodiana Lala of News24 television asked her about the allegations outside the courthouse. Hyseni responded with a counter-question alluding to Lala’s alleged meetings with “Serbian agents”. Lala called it a very serious accusation and blackmail during a live broadcast and announced legal action. Opposition MP Agron Shehaj interpreted it as a message to all media reporting on the case. That day in parliament, the Democratic Party sought to change the agenda and open a debate with the prime minister about the SHISH chief; the majority rejected it, and Democratic MPs banged on their desks and blocked the speaker’s podium. President Begaj met with acting service chief Elvis Lila, Interior Minister Ervin Demo and police director Skënder Hita. According to available reports, he did not convene the National Security Council requested by the opposition. Gazeta Shqiptare ↗ Balkanweb ↗ Balkanweb ↗ Gazeta Shqiptare ↗

For Slovak readers, the case has one further interesting dimension. SPAK and the specialised GJKKO court were established as part of the 2016 judicial reform, which Albania approved under EU pressure as a condition for accession negotiations and which also included vetting judges and prosecutors. Until 2024, Slovakia had a similar model of a specialised anti-corruption prosecution office — its Office of the Special Prosecutor was abolished by a parliamentary decision. In Albania, a comparable institution is now investigating the top echelon of its own security apparatus. European Western Balkans ↗

Limits of this perspective

The presumption of innocence applies — these are charges and a provisional measure, not a verdict. Hyseni did not comment publicly on the allegations even on Thursday, when she appeared for questioning. On Tuesday, the Italian agency ANSA referred in a subheadline to her alleged flight abroad — this was not confirmed; she returned to Albania alone via Kosovo that evening. ANSA ↗

Most of the details come from Albanian media, which are clearly divided between the government and opposition camps in domestic cases. The verifiable core — the date and number of the decision, the articles, names and measures — comes from SPAK’s official announcement and reporting by BIRN and Balkan Insight, editorial offices outside this division. Claims about whom Hyseni served, including earlier opposition allegations of links to Belgrade that the service rejected, remain unsubstantiated and are not presented as fact in this text.

Nor do we know the true scale of the security impact. Whether Agasi obtained information from the intelligence apparatus itself or merely from an ongoing investigation is a distinction the prosecution has not yet explained — and it is the key question for the allies.

What hotinfo is monitoring

Illustrative photo: the headquarters of Albania’s Council of Ministers in Tirana, to which the SHISH intelligence service reports. Photo: ErtonKashta, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.