Valerie Hopkins

This is not a good week for the bad guys, but it isn’t great for the good guys, either.

An 18 year old Ukrainian girl who was gang raped and set ablaze by three men, two of whom were sons of local politicians, .

An Albanian reporter is facing charges for simply doing her job covering a dispute between high level officials. The Prime Minister’s office filed charges against journalist Lindita Cela for her coverage of politicians accusing one another of being part of the repressive communist regime that ruled the country until 1992.  

By Valerie Hopkins

As the United States mulls normalizing trade relations with Russia, Russia’s president is pushing for a law that would mandate that , company shares and cars, President Medvedev announced on Tuesday at a meeting of the Kremlin anti-corruption council.

 Now, as he prepares to hand the reins back to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he has urged that the proposal be finalized next week.  If passed, all officials will have to disclose asset purchases if “the amount of money spent by an official or his family member in a single deal exceeds the total three-year official incomes of his family members.”

Developments in Albania and Kosovo

One week after a former deputy prime minister of Albania was , human rights watchers and citizens are expressing their discontent about the verdict.

An investigation has finally begun into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of four Albanians in peaceful demonstrations last year outside Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s office. Three government officials have been arrested in connection with the deaths, including the .

Albania has agreed to sign an agreement with the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) to comply with investigations into organ trafficking. Berisha said he agreed with chief investigator John Clint Williamson to “institutionalize cooperation between the two authorities.” Williamson is in charge of determining whether or not members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) harvested the organs of Serb prisoners during the 1999 war in Kosovo.

A in Kosovo will be a key witness in the trial against seven men, including a Turkish doctor and an Israeli citizen for organ trafficking. The Canadian, Raul Fain, paid US$127,000 to buy a kidney from Pristina’s Medicus Clinic, which is at the center of the investigation.

On the eve of Kosovo’s fourth anniversary as an independent state, by the state anti-corruption agency for failing to declare assets.

Four years after the largest ever European Union Police Mission was dispatched, not a single Kosovan has been indicted for organized crime, raising concern in Brussels and elsewhere, .

The Albanian Supreme Court of charges that he attempted to improperly influence an economy minister over the sale of a hydropower plant.  A former Mafioso told a South African paper that .  And Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov denied allegations that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov Konstantin Tsiganov, who is sought by Interpol.

Montenegro Parliamentarian to Investigate Corrupt Telekom Privatization

Andrija Mandic, chairman of his parliament’s committee for monitoring privatization has been asking US and German officials for help determining what went wrong when Montenegro sold its state telecommunications agency to companies in Hungary and Germany.

Mandic held a meeting with parliamentarians and stakeholders in the capital city Podgorica Friday to learn more after two companies, Hungarian Magyar Telekom and its parent company Deutsche Telekom paid US$95 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Dec. 29, in a settlement acknowledging that they engaged in corrupt practices in Montenegro and another former Yugoslav country, Macedonia.

Because Magyar Telekom is traded on the US stock market, American authorities prosecuted  under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Mandic is critical of Montenegrin courts:  “The work of the domestic judiciary is catastrophic and it is questionable whether [any charges will be filed] in Montenegro,” . “No one from the ruling structure has said anything since this scandal emerged.”

A Russian journalist who spent his career uncovering corruption was murdered on Thursday, a day devoted to honoring the country’s slain reporters.  He was shot 14 times late in the night as he was leaving his office.

Hadzhimurad Kamalov founded Chernovik, a newspaper in the restive Russian province of Dagestan in the north Caucasus that was known for its independent coverage of government affairs, including corruption rampant in the region.

Kamalov also served as executive director for Svoboda Slova, a foundation advocating for independent press.

Human rights groups have linked his murder to his work

“This disgusting crime was committed exactly at the end of the Memorial Day, when journalist organizations all over Russia gave tribute to colleagues who perished due to their work in the last 20 years,” said Galina Sidorova, chair of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism in Russia and vice-chair of the executive board of the International Press Institute (IPI).

She stressed that the situation for journalists committed to exposing corruption is dangerous.