Former Albanian President Bujar Nishani died following a serious health problem, the country’s presidential office said Saturday. He was 55.
President Ilir Meta wrote on Facebook that he had learned “with sadness and deep regret that President Bujar Nishani passed away.”
No further details were released but a month ago Nishani went to Germany to seek treatment for a serious liver illness, reports AP.
Nishani served as president from 2012 until 2017. At 45, he was elected as the youngest and sixth president in post-communist Albania, supported only by lawmakers from the center-right Democratic party of then-Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Before that, Nishani served as the country’s interior and justice ministers. Born in the port city of Durres, 20 miles west of capital of Tirana, Nishani graduated from the military academy and later the law faculty.
He first lectured at the military academy and then worked in senior jobs in Albania’s Defense Ministry. His political career started a few years before he was elected as a lawmaker in 2005.
Nishani was physically not fully fit after surgery in 2008 for a cerebral cavernoma, a vascular abnormality of the central nervous system, according to his physician Dr. Mentor Petrela.
AHN
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