Albania’s Intelligence Chief Placed Under House Arrest in Agasi Investigation

Tirana Examiner Newsroom

Albania’s Special Court against Corruption and Organised Crime (GJKKO) on Tuesday ordered house arrest and suspension from duty for Vlora Hyseni, director of the State Intelligence Service (SHISH), on the request of the Special Prosecution (SPAK). It is reported to be the first time a serving director of the intelligence service has been made the subject of a criminal security measure.

Hyseni is suspected of two offences under the Criminal Code: aiding the perpetrator of a crime and disclosure of secret acts or data. The measure had not been executed by early afternoon. Report TV’s Klodiana Lala, who broke the story, reported that Hyseni is in Baku, Azerbaijan, at an international conference of intelligence chiefs. SHISH has not confirmed her whereabouts. Neither SPAK nor GJKKO had issued a statement by the time of writing, no reasoned decision has been published, and everything known about the evidence so far comes through the press.

How the file reached SHISH

The order belongs to a new branch of the AKSHI investigation, one of SPAK’s largest cases. Businessman Ergys Agasi is accused of leading a structured criminal group that rigged tenders at the National Agency for the Information Society, the government’s IT procurement body. In 19 procedures examined by SPAK the combined limit fund was 5.9 billion lek, roughly €59 million, according to BIRN, and the agency’s director Mirlinda Karçanaj and her deputy Hava Delibashi are accused of leaving those funds to a group that pre-selected winners and channelled tens of millions of euros to Agasi and his partner, IT businessman Ermal Beqiraj. Beqiraj was arrested in France on 24 July after flying a light aircraft into restricted airspace over the Penly nuclear power station; French investigators went on to identify a château, two apartments, vehicles and more than €2 million in bank deposits which SPAK suspects were bought with proceeds of the scheme.

Agasi was arrested on 26 August after eight months on the run, together with Uljan Shpataraku, a former commander of the Elbasan police. Ilir Proda had left the post of State Police director in early March, other commanders he had appointed were removed in July, and the operation to detain Agasi began days after those changes. Shqiptarja.com, citing sources, reports that SHISH had no advance knowledge of the arrest.

According to Report TV, video footage seized in Agasi’s office documents his meetings with ministers and senior officials; that footage, together with data from Shpataraku’s phone, led prosecutors to Hyseni. In the Special Appeals Court on Monday, Agasi acknowledged the meetings and denied that any of them amounted to corruption: “I met ministers and directors, but prove to me that I committed corruption.” The prosecutors on the file are Bledar Maksuti and Altin Dumani.

Two arrests were carried out on Tuesday morning. Fatjon Kalluçi is head of the State Police Scientific Laboratory. Embro Sulejmani is described by Shqiptarja.com as head waiter at a bar in the government residence complex in Durrës, recently acquired by the owners of the Kodra e Kuajve agrotourism business, and by other outlets as a businessman connected to that firm; the bar is frequented by politicians and, among others, was frequented by Agasi. Media reports say he deleted the bar’s security-camera footage after Agasi’s arrest. SPAK also searched premises in Shkozet belonging to a trading company registered to his father and brother. Proda was searched at home and on his person under a GJKKO warrant, then questioned at SPAK; no measure was announced against him. Searches were also carried out on other police and SHISH officials, and BIRN reports that detentions of further police officers are being prepared.

The appointment record

Hyseni spent years at the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI), heading its foreign-relations directorate and, from 2019, serving as deputy director. On 30 June 2021 President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti dismissed her. The government notice gave no reasons. It cited only the AKI law, required her to return all equipment and materials in her charge, and reminded her that the classified information she had handled remained protected and that its disclosure was a criminal offence. The decision was published in Kosovo’s Official Gazette without grounds. Pristina has never explained it. The explanations offered since have all come from Albanian opposition politicians.

In September 2021 Prime Minister Edi Rama took her on as his national security adviser. On 17 March 2023 he proposed her to President Bajram Begaj to succeed Helidon Bendo at SHISH. Gazment Bardhi of the Democratic Party wrote at the time that the President was “obliged to obtain full information from the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo on the reasons for her removal from all positions in the intelligence services”, to make that information public and to inform Parliament, adding that the service “can never be an institution under Edi Rama’s personal control”. Begaj decreed her on 3 April 2023, about two weeks after the proposal, and Rama presented her to SHISH staff the following day. She was the first woman to lead the service. Opposition claims in 2023 that she had made a secret visit to Serbia soon after taking office were categorically denied by SHISH, which stated that she had held no meetings abroad after her appointment.

In June 2026 Parliament debated and, on 2 July, approved amendments expanding SHISH’s activity, including access to state databases and an exemption of its officials from asset declaration; Jorida Tabaku argued in committee that the government was expanding the service’s powers without checks. When the service’s annual report to Parliament became public on 30 June, Hyseni answered opposition accusations by saying they were “disinforming for political interests”. On 4 June Bardhi had told Parliament, addressing Rama, that his intelligence chief’s main task appeared to be to inform and protect Agasi from arrest by SPAK.

Reactions

Bardhi wrote on Tuesday that the operation “proves one of the gravest acts of the Albanian state under Edi Rama’s regime: SHISH and the State Police in the service of organised crime”, that he had “spoken with names and surnames” for three years, and that “there is a signature under Vlora Hyseni’s appointment. It is Edi Rama’s signature. And from that signature he knows he cannot escape.” Sali Berisha, at a press conference, said Hyseni had “broken her oath and the law” and that “there is no lower level of betrayal of duty”. He repeated the Belgrade claim, attributing it to “very reliable sources”, and said he had considered her appointment a threat to NATO because allied services share intelligence with member states.

Tabaku asked Begaj to convene the National Security Council immediately to establish whether state information, the work of institutions and the security of citizens had been compromised, and said political responsibility “cannot be postponed indefinitely, waiting for the prosecution to speak for every link of this system”.

In the Committee on Citizens’ Initiatives, Ivi Kaso called it the day “the fall of the Albanian state was definitively certified”, recalled that the opposition had warned about her “inappropriate ties” with Agasi for three years while “the prime minister laughed”, and asked for joint hearings with the security committee on how the institution holding state secrets had been left without oversight. Committee chair Fatmir Xhafaj, in the first response from the Socialist side, said that “institutions do not arrest individuals, institutions do their duty in accordance with the law”, that this was “a sign of a maturing democracy, of the strengthening of the rule of law”, and that Parliament’s task is oversight rather than replacing the criminal-justice institutions. He said he was open to proposals from the opposition.

In the Interior Committee, which had convened to discuss the Gaza stabilisation-force agreement, Klevis Balliu said he had written to Hyseni in January through institutional channels asking about her contacts with Agasi and invited SPAK to seize her reply from Parliament’s files; Bledi Çuçi answered that “responsibility is personal”, that everyone is innocent until convicted, and that the day showed the separation of powers “thanks to the will of this majority”. Erald Kapri demanded that Rama return from the United States and resign; Çuçi called for calm and for cooperation with justice. In the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tritan Shehu said the measure compromises Albania’s credibility with NATO allies and asked that Rama be summoned to the first plenary session to answer for an appointment made “in a suspicious manner”. For the Freedom Party, Tedi Blushi described “the state’s capture in every cell by the mafia” and Erisa Xhixho said national security was “in emergency”. Marjana Koçeku, who recently left the Socialist parliamentary group, offered her own four-step summary on X: named by Thaçi, dismissed by Kurti, appointed by Rama, and, in her words, “arrested” by SPAK.

What remains open

No official body has confirmed Hyseni’s whereabouts or when she is expected back. No response from Hyseni or from lawyers acting for her had been made public by the time of writing, and SHISH had issued no statement. The specific information she is suspected of having disclosed, and to whom, has not been made public. Whether the Prime Minister or the President, who between them appoint and decree the director of SHISH, will act on the suspension before the court process runs its course, and who is running the service in the meantime, are unanswered. Rama, in the United States for the UN General Assembly week, had not commented by publication. Hyseni and all others named enjoy the presumption of innocence until a final court decision.