VIP files in Albania – Experts: We are becoming more effective at punishing corruption after it has occurred, but we are much less capable of preventing it.
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On September 22, the director of the State Intelligence Service, Vlora Hyseni, was in Baku, Azerbaijan, at an international conference with intelligence service leaders. In Tirana, meanwhile, the Special Court ordered house arrest and suspension from duty against her, on suspicion of supporting a crime perpetrator and disclosing investigative secrets. Amid shadows over the country’s national security, President Bajram Begaj convened the National Security Council on Monday (28.09.2026). “Justice investigations must be conducted fully independently and be respected by all. Individual cases must not turn into a crisis of trust in the state and in security institutions,” reads the statement released after the meeting. But the case of the former head of SHISH is not the only one. Former President Ilir Meta has spent almost two years in pretrial detention. Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha is on trial. Tirana Mayor Erjon Veliaj has been in a cell since the beginning of 2025. Two former deputy prime ministers in Rama’s governments, Arben Ahmetaj and Belinda Balluku, are also facing criminal proceedings. Investigations have also included senior AKSHI officials, ministers and other former senior officials.
VIP files
For years, corruption at high levels was not punished. Therefore, one of the main expectations of the justice reform launched in 2016 was that high-level officials and politicians would no longer remain outside the reach of justice. “The expectation was that the new justice institutions would focus on high-level corruption and ‘VIP’ cases,” Afrim Krasniqi, a political scientist and executive director of the Institute of Political Studies, told DW. “There were individuals who stood above the law and impunity was pronounced.”
But the results of the reform did not come immediately. Setting up and consolidating the new institutions took years, while investigating old cases was often more difficult.
For Dorian Matlija, a lawyer and executive director of Res Publica, the number of senior officials now facing criminal proceedings does not necessarily mean that corruption is more widespread than before. “What has changed significantly is the institutional response,” Matlija told DW. “Today SPAK is a specialized structure, with more independence, stronger capacities and international support, as well as the will to undertake investigations that have broken the myth of the untouchability of senior officials.”
Who prevents corruption?
Senior officials appearing before justice is only one side of how institutions function. Because when a corruption case reaches the prosecution, the suspected violation has already occurred. According to Dorian Matlija, this is exactly where results are less convincing.
“We are becoming more effective at punishing corruption after it has happened, but we are much less capable of preventing it,” he says.
According to him, prevention should start much earlier, through administrative controls, audits, conflict-of-interest rules and asset declarations. But Matlija assesses that these mechanisms have often failed to do their job.
The European Commission reaches a similar conclusion in its 2025 report on Albania. It assesses that SPAK has made “tangible progress” in the fight against high-level corruption. At the same time, however, corruption remains widespread and prevention mechanisms have had limited effect.
The scale of the problem also appears in citizens’ contacts with the administration. In a 2023 SELDI survey, 52% of respondents in Albania said they had faced corrupt pressure from public officials, while 40% said they had paid bribes.
Afrim Krasniqi also sees the problem in power relations. The Socialist Party has governed Albania since 2013 and currently has an absolute majority in parliament. According to him, the prolonged dominance of one political force has weakened the mechanisms that should check executive power. “We have a deformed system,” Krasniqi told DW. “The head of the executive controls the executive, parliament and the institutions.”
According to him, the concentration of power has also been accompanied by informal influence networks, through which individuals outside state institutions can influence political decision-making, legislation and the use of public assets.
Prime Minister Rama stresses that criminal responsibility is individual whenever investigations have involved senior officials. For the Hyseni case, too, his position was the same.
“When a senior official has opened a personal case with the justice system, including this case of the former head of the Intelligence Service, it is an individual matter between her and the justice authorities. I have nothing else to add about this matter itself,” Rama said.
The test of results
In May, the EU confirmed the fulfilment of the interim benchmarks for the “Fundamentals” cluster, which includes the rule of law. Attention now shifts to implementation and sustainable results.
Corruption indicators also present a mixed picture. Albania has improved in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, from 33 points in 2012 to 39 in 2025, but still lags behind EU countries.
For lawyer Matlija, European integration has helped strengthen institutions such as SPAK. “The EU no longer asks only for the adoption of laws and reforms, but for concrete and sustainable results,” he says.
For Afrim Krasniqi, this is exactly where the test of integration lies: not only in formal progress in negotiations, but in the change it brings to the country. “The essence must be that Albania, Albanian society and Albanian institutions change and improve, so that we become worthy of integration,” Krasniqi says.
According to him, this change must also be felt by citizens, through social security, well-being and independence, and not remain merely an achievement on paper. /DW
