The Fier District Court has ordered pre-trial detention for 34-year-old Aranit Arapi, who is accused of engaging in sexual relations with a minor. Arapi appeared before the court, led by prosecutor Oliana Gjergjefi, and the case was overseen by Judge Klodiana Kryeziu, given that the victim is a minor.
Arapi was arrested at his home in the village of Kryekuq, Divjakë, following numerous complaints to the police by the family of the underage girl, whom Arapi had been married to for 10 months. The 34-year-old is charged with having sexual relations with a minor. The police arrested him on a Wednesday afternoon (January 10th) after the girl's parents filed a complaint.
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| Court document related to the arrest of Arapi |
The incident took place in the village of Kryekuq in Divjakë, where the couple had been living together since March of the previous year and had even held a wedding ceremony. The 14-year-old girl's parents, from Roskovec, did not approve of their daughter's relationship and marriage to the 34-year-old man. They insist that they tried to negotiate with their daughter to return to her family, but she refused.
According to the parents of the 34-year-old, the minor had been living in their house since March 15, 2023, and after a few months, they held a wedding ceremony. "She didn't tell my son the truth about her age. 'Don't tell people,' she said, 'because my parents don't agree. They'll call us and we'll go to Kakavijë.' We went as people and went there. When we got there, we went to her parents and they told us they would kill the boy, they would burn him. I told them I have an eye of light, you can't kill him," the mother-in-law told News24.
Furthermore, they claimed that the minor had also dropped out of school, misleading them about her age by claiming she was 17 instead of 14 years old.