A scandal involving secretly recorded intimate footage has shaken Albania’s entertainment industry after well-known singer Eli Fara told police she had no idea a camera was recording her. She said she does not believe composer Adrian Hila, who appears in videos circulating online, was responsible for releasing the footage.
TIRANA, Oct 2 (BalkanView) — A prominent Albanian singer has told police she was filmed during an intimate encounter without her knowledge, as authorities investigate the online distribution of private videos involving figures from the country’s entertainment industry.
Eli Fara, a veteran singer widely known in Albania and among Albanian communities abroad, said she had been unaware that a camera was recording her, according to BalkanWeb.
“I didn’t know there was a camera. I wasn’t aware that I was being filmed,” Fara was quoted as telling investigators.
But she drew a distinction between the recording of the footage and its subsequent publication.
Fara said she did not believe Adrian Hila, a well-known Albanian composer who appears in intimate footage circulating online, had released the videos.
“I don’t think Adrian Hila published the videos,” she said, adding that she wanted to report the person responsible for putting them online.
From celebrity scandal to privacy investigation
The case has attracted widespread attention in Albania after intimate videos began circulating on social media, accompanied by claims that several singers and other public figures had been recorded.
Some Albanian media reports have claimed that as many as 17 well-known people could be connected to the material.
Authorities have not publicly confirmed that figure.
Police are questioning people connected to the case as they seek to establish who recorded the footage, how it was obtained and who subsequently distributed it online, according to Albanian media reports.
The investigation is particularly sensitive because it involves two potentially separate acts: recording someone without their knowledge and distributing intimate material without their consent.
Fara’s testimony is significant because it provides a first-person account from one of the people reportedly appearing in the material.
Her statement indicates that she did not know she was being filmed. At the same time, she did not accuse Hila of publishing the footage and instead asked police to identify the person responsible for its release.
That distinction challenges some of the more sweeping allegations that initially circulated on Albanian social media, where responsibility for recording and leaking the videos was often presented as part of the same story.
Investigators have yet to publicly establish who was responsible for either act.
Police try to trace the source
The controversy erupted earlier this week after intimate footage began spreading rapidly across Albanian-language social networks and media.
The publication triggered intense speculation about the identities of those depicted and claims about how the recordings had been made.
Police subsequently opened an investigation into the dissemination of the material.
Fara’s testimony now turns attention towards the central questions facing investigators: who made the recordings, who obtained them and who decided to publish them?
Until those questions are answered, allegations circulating online about responsibility — as well as claims about the number and identities of people involved — remain unverified.