Erion Veliaj has spent more than 20 months in pre-trial detention but remains Tirana’s mayor on paper. An AI avatar announced city initiatives after a court overturned his removal on procedural grounds.
On October 6, 2026, a roughly four-minute video put a digital stand-in for Tirana’s jailed mayor before residents. Erion Veliaj, a 46-year-old Socialist Party politician, has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in February 2025 at the request of Albania’s Special Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime Structure, known as SPAK. He remains in custody without a final verdict and, after a Constitutional Court ruling, still formally leads Albania’s capital.
The video appeared on Veliaj’s official Instagram account. The avatar announced municipal initiatives and revisited promises from his time in office, including free meals for schoolchildren. Veliaj says artificial intelligence is the only way he can communicate with residents while detained.
SPAK accuses Veliaj of corruption. It also alleges money laundering and concealment of assets, among other offences. Veliaj denies wrongdoing, and a court has not established the allegations. The trial on the substance of the case began in February 2026. On September 15, Albania’s Supreme Court upheld his continued detention. The Constitutional Court addressed the procedure used to remove him, not the criminal allegations, and left him formally in office.
The legal status came after a failed effort to force a new mayoral election.
In 2025, Tirana’s city council voted to remove Veliaj and prepared for snap mayoral elections scheduled for November. The Constitutional Court later overturned the process, ruling that he could not be removed without ordinary democratic procedures. The planned election was cancelled, leaving Veliaj legally recognized as mayor while he remained in pre-trial detention.
That arrangement has drawn criticism from opposition politicians and civic activists. Jorida Tabaku, a Democratic Party MP and chair of the European Affairs Committee, says an avatar cannot make decisions or supervise services. It also cannot answer for results. Independent activist Azmer Duleviç says Veliaj should have resigned a year ago to clear the way for municipal elections, rather than leave the city without what he describes as clear, active government.
The video can carry announcements. It cannot perform the mayor’s duties or independently direct city services. The next local elections were expected in the first half of 2027. RUSSPAIN has also covered a separate case involving public figure Rafael Amargo. That Madrid case is distinct from the constitutional and municipal questions facing Tirana.
The case is unfolding as Albania seeks EU membership. The country opened accession negotiations in 2022, and Brussels has tied progress to reforms that strengthen judicial independence and the fight against corruption. SPAK began operating in 2019. It is investigating senior figures including Veliaj and former deputy prime minister Belinda Balluku, who has been barred from leaving the country.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has promoted another virtual political figure. Diella was introduced in September 2025 as a minister for public procurement. Rama presented the system as a way to make tenders entirely free of corruption; opposition figures dismissed the announcement as propaganda. Tabaku says Veliaj had already acted as Rama’s political stand-in in Tirana. She argues that the governing system leans too heavily on personal loyalty, leaving institutions vulnerable when a central figure is removed from day-to-day government.
Writer Fatos Lubonja questions whether high-profile investigations have reduced corruption more broadly. Arrests alone, he argues, do not show that criminal activity has diminished. He points to construction and tourism projects as areas where, in his view, money laundering persists. Lubonja describes Veliaj as a political ally sacrificed by Rama and says the prime minister remains the country’s untouchable power centre.
