TIRANA — Vlora Hyseni, the dismissed director of Albania's State Intelligence Service (SHISH), confronted one of the country's leading organised-crime reporters on Thursday on the steps of the Special Court, as she arrived to be formally notified of the house-arrest order issued against her.
Unapologetic, Hyseni brushed aside reporters' questions about the alleged leaking of classified information and, without hesitation, turned on Klodiana Lala, a veteran crime correspondent, with an accusation of her own.
"Klodi, how do you spend your time in meetings with Serbian agents in the rooms of the Rogner Hotel?" Hyseni asked, in what was widely seen as an attempt at intimidation.
The exchange was carried live by several television channels whose cameras had been waiting outside the court.
Hyseni appeared before the Special Court for Corruption and Organised Crime to be served with the ruling placing her under house arrest. She faces charges of assisting the perpetrator of a criminal offence and disclosing classified information.
Prosecutors from the Special Anti-Corruption Structure (SPAK) allege that Hyseni was in a romantic relationship with Ergys Agasi, a suspected head of a criminal organisation, and stayed in close contact with him while he was wanted on an international warrant.
They say the two exchanged more than 500 calls and messages in the two months before his arrest in late August and that she briefed him on her meetings, including with the Prime Minister and senior police officials.
Prime Minister Edi Rama dismissed her after the court's ruling.
