Albanian court clears ex-central bank governor of abuse charges

TIRANA (Reuters) - Albania's former central bank governor was found not guilty on Monday of abuse of office over an employee's theft of millions of dollars from the bank's vault and the purchase of a central hotel for offices. The prosecutor's office will appeal the decision, saying Ardian Fullani bears responsibility for not enforcing the rules of the supervisory board for the management of the vault and for preparing the hotel's sale after the government set the price. "The court decided to declare the defendant Ardian Fullani innocent of the charges of abuse of office .. .We also lift his security restrictions," Judge Artan Gjermeni said. Shrugging off calls for his resignation, Fullani stayed on after a treasury employee, Ardian Bitraj, confessed in July last year that he had stolen about seven million dollars over four years from the high-security vault. Fullani said it was an isolated incident. The supervisory board later voted to sack Fullani after he was arrested and parliament ousted him from the job, interrupting his second seven-year mandate in the middle. Following a year-long investigation, prosecutors asked that Fullani be sentenced to three years and four months in jail because his lack of action in enforcing the rules led directly to the theft. But the court said prosecutors lacked facts against him. Bitraj and a colleague, Mimoza Bruzia, have been sentenced to 20 and 15 years respectively in jail for the theft. Ten 10 other vault employees received sentences totalling 10 years in jail for negligence. (Reporting By Benet Koleka, Editing by Larry King)