November 23 (SeeNews) - Albania’s parliament appointed late on Thursday Ina Rama, a judge at the Serious Crimes Court of Appeal, as the country's new chief prosecutor.
The nomination of Rama, 35, was approved in a 83-33 vote in the 140 seat parliament, the legislative body said in a statement.
Rama is the first woman to become Albanian chief prosecutor.
Earlier on Thursday Albania’s President Bamir Topi sacked the top prosecutor Theodhori Sollaku over poor performance at parliament's proposal.
The country's parliament proposed to the head of state in a 77-37 vote to fire Sollaku after a special parliamentary committee set up to investigate the work of the chief prosecutor said that he had failed to cooperate with international law enforcement agencies, had approved the release of about two dozen convicted criminals and had failed to act in serious criminal cases.
Sollaku has denied any wrongdoing.
Albania has been widely criticised by international donors and institutions for its failure to fight corruption, organised crime and illegal trafficking. Corruption watchdog Transparency International has said that last year Albania led the list of countries in the world in terms of the number of bribes sought by police or other officials. Two out of three respondents said they had given at least one bribe in 2006.
In September, Albania's deputy Transport Minister Nikolin Jaka and six other government officials were arrested on charges of corruption.