Former Albanian President Bujar Nishani passed away on Saturday in a hospital in Germany where he was being treated due to complications caused by COVID-19, local media reported.

Nishani, 55, was sent to hospital after suffering from bilateral pneumonia with respiratory insufficiency, as a result of complications caused by COVID-19.

He contracted the virus a few months ago and went to Germany in April.

Nishani was Albania's president from 2012 to 2017 and served as the interior and justice minister before that.

(File photo of Bujar Nishani, May 29, 2016. /AP)