Vlora Hiseni: SHISH Chief Under House Arrest

Albania’s Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) has ordered house arrest and suspended from duty Vlora Hiseni, director of Albania’s State Intelligence Service (SHISH), suspected of leaking information from an ongoing investigation and helping a person under criminal investigation. For Belgrade, the case is notable for more than just the name at the top of Albania’s intelligence service. SPAK is the institution the European Commission has pointed to for years as the clearest evidence of Albania’s progress on the rule of law chapter, the same chapter where Serbia, with a weaker track record, is trying to make headway of its own in its EU membership talks. The arrest of the person leading the intelligence service tests that very institution in front of Brussels, at a moment when Podgorica and Tirana are moving through their accession chapters faster than Belgrade.

The measure was imposed, at SPAK’s request, by the Special Court of First Instance for Corruption and Organized Crime, under decision No. 67 dated September 21, and carried out the following morning, September 22. Sources differ slightly on the timeline: Albania’s Albeu, citing the court’s statement, gives September 21 as the date of the decision, while Britain’s Balkan Insight describes the events as Tuesday’s news, September 22, the day the measure was actually enforced. According to the prosecution’s statement, Hiseni is suspected of criminal offenses under articles 320/2 and 295/a/1 of Albania’s Criminal Code, within case No. 20/1 from 2025. Media in Tirana report that Hiseni is currently outside the country.

Under the same batch of measures, ordered by the same court, pretrial detention was imposed on Fatjon Kaluci, head of a department at the Institute of Forensic Police, and on Embër Sulejmani, an employee of the company Agroturizëm Kodra e Kuajve, both under article 302/2 of the Criminal Code. SPAK also announced it had searched the home of former State Police director Ilir Proda, as well as a villa in the Skozet area near Durrës, based on court decisions from September 20 and 21.

The investigation centers on 19 tender procedures run by the National Agency for Information Society (AKSHI), with an estimated value of around 5.9 billion lek, or roughly 59 million euros. AKSHI coordinates the development of the state’s information systems and runs the e-Albania portal. SPAK accuses the agency’s director, Mirlinda Karçanaj, and her deputy, Hava Delibashi, of channeling part of those funds to a group linked to organized crime, pre-selecting tender winners, and enabling the outflow of tens of millions of euros to accounts held by IT businessmen Ermal Beqiraj and Ergis Agasi.

That chain of events began months before Hiseni’s detention. Agasi was arrested on August 27 after months on the run, while Beqiraj had been arrested earlier, on July 24 in France, while flying a small aircraft through restricted airspace over a nuclear power plant. According to SPAK, Beqiraj moved part of the illegally obtained money to France, where he used it to buy a castle, two apartments and several vehicles, on top of more than two million euros held in bank accounts. Karçanaj, Delibashi and Agasi deny the charges, and Beqiraj remains in custody in France.

The case has been met with disbelief in Albania. Journalist and analyst Mentor Kikia wrote on Facebook:

“Whenever something happens, we say: this is the end, it can’t get worse than this. But the problem in this country is that even the end has no end.”

The opposition immediately called on President Bajram Begaj to urgently convene a session of the National Security Council. Lawmakers from the ruling Socialist Party, by contrast, urged caution. “We have to wait for a final court verdict. Nothing is true until it’s proven in court,” said Socialist MP Blendi Cuci at a session of parliament’s Committee on Internal Affairs and Defense, after opposition lawmakers demanded the issue be urgently placed on the assembly’s agenda.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly session, said he had already dismissed Hiseni and would appoint a new SHISH chief following consultations with President Begaj. Hiseni has led Albania’s intelligence service since 2023, having previously spent about two years as Rama’s national security adviser. Her appointment to head SHISH was already controversial at the time because of her Kosovo citizenship: before coming to Tirana, she had served as deputy director of Kosovo’s Intelligence Agency (KIA), from which she was removed in June 2021 by then-President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti, without a publicly stated reason. The date for appointing a new SHISH director depends on the outcome of those consultations and has not yet been set.