TIRANA, August 25 – The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs has rejected the claims of the Russian embassy in Tirana regarding the latter’s failure to inform about the two Russian citizens caught near the Gramsh plant.
The General Secretary of this ministry, Gazmend Turdiu, said on Thursday that all actions related to this issue are in full compliance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, according to which the authorities notify the embassy only if the detainees request it. Also, the Albanian actions are in accordance with the conventions for the protection of personal data to which Albania is a party.
According to the ministry, the response to the verbal note of the Russian embassy arrived on August 23 in the afternoon and it was immediately addressed to the competent authorities with a request for information.
The Albanian authorities were unable to notify the Russian embassy of the detention of these two citizens because of the Vienna Convention.
The Russian Embassy in Tirana stated a few days ago that it had sent a verbal note and a request for information to the Foreign Ministry regarding the Russians arrested on suspicion of espionage since four days.
The two Russians, 33-year-old Svetlana Timofoeva and 23-year-old Mikhail Zorin and Ukrainian Fyodor Mihailovic were arrested and held in custody by the court as they are being investigated under suspicion of espionage. There are two charges against them: “Giving secret information”, and “Hit due to duty”.
/Argumentum.al
