Albania’s prosecutors issue arrest warrants on charges including murder and abuse of office

Albanian prosecutors issued  17 arrest warrants on charges including murder and abuse of office over the deaths of 51 people killed when a 6.4-magnitude earthquake toppled dozens of buildings last month.

Police and prosecutors said initial investigations showed “the loss of life in the collapsed buildings came also because their builders, engineers and owners had failed to observe the rules, norms and standards of safe constructions.”

Two of the nine people detained on Saturday on murder charges were the owners of two hotels that collapsed, killing four people in Durres, Albania’s second-biggest city and main port. A third was the manager of a police vacation hotel where a high-ranking police officer was killed under the rubble.

Police said that some of the 17 people being sought by prosecutors had fled after the Nov. 26 quake. The high-rises built during the post-Communist boom along the beach are mostly apartments and hotels catering to both Albanians and foreigners, including ethnic Albanians from the Balkans and the Diaspora. Most suffered no damage.

via Reuters