https://www.cna.al/english/politike/ligji-per-pastrimin-e-parave-pas-debateve-komisioni-miraton-projektligj-i460216

The Laws Committee discussed the draft law on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, focusing in particular on the measure of blocking bank accounts for 72 hours in case of suspicions of illegal transactions.

The representative of the Financial Intelligence Agency, Entila Zyba, explained that the order to block accounts is only valid for 72 hours.

After this deadline, decision-making passes to the prosecution, which must issue a new order to continue the blockade.

However, members of the commission from both political parties raised concerns that in practice, many accounts are not unblocked after this deadline, even in the absence of a decision from the prosecution. According to them, this has led to cases of accounts being blocked for long periods, even years.

For this reason, the deputies requested the reformulation of Article 7 of the draft law, in order to clarify its implementation and avoid abuses.

In the end, the committee approved the draft law and will propose amendments to the article regulating the blocking of accounts after the 72-hour deadline.