Tirana, May 28 (BNA) Former Albanian President Bujar Nishani passed away after suffering from a serious health problem. He was 55 years old.
President Ilir Meta wrote on Facebook that he had learned of “with deep sadness and regret the death of President Bujar Nishani”.
No further details were revealed but a month ago Nishani went to Germany to seek treatment for a serious liver disease, according to the Associated Press.
Nishani served as president from 2012 until 2017. At the age of 45, he was elected as the sixth youngest president in post-communist Albania, with the support of only lawmakers from the center-right Democratic Party of then Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
Prior to that, Nishani served as the country’s interior and justice ministers. Nishani was born in the port city of Durres, 20 miles west of the capital, Tirana, and graduated from the Military Academy and later law school.
He initially lectured at the Military Academy and then worked in senior positions in the Albanian Ministry of Defense. His political career began a few years before he was elected MP in 2005.
Nishani was not physically fit after surgery in 2008 due to a cerebral cavernoma, a malfunction of the blood vessels in the central nervous system, according to his physician, Dr. Mentor Petrilla.
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