Albania Charges Ex-Official in Aid Scam

Former Deputy Premier Sokrat Plaka has been arrested and charged with abuse of power in a spreading investigation into allegations of massive mismanagement of aid spending in Europe’s poorest country.

Plaka’s arrest Thursday was reported by state-run television Friday, less than a week after the detention of former Premier Fatos Nano on the same charge.

The prosecution charges that the Italian company picked by Nano during his Socialist government’s three-month term in 1991-92 to deliver foreign aid from Italy sent luxury items instead of staples and charged inflated prices.

Nano has denied wrongdoing and charged the anti-Communist Albanian government and the United States of collusion in unjustly targeting him.