Qatari owned company OMNIX has decided to withdraw its planned investment in a $450mn tourist project in Albania after an executive from the company was attacked and beaten up in Tirana.

Cases of violence have become a major reason for foreign investors to abandon their projects in the Balkan country.

The Lebanese businessman Fadi Mitri, who also has a US passport, was pulled out of his car and beaten with a baseball bat in the Albanian capital on September 10. Mitri was an administrator at OMNIX Albania, owned by Qatari businessman Jamal Abdulsalam Abu Issa.

OMNIX Albania has condemned the incident as serious criminal act. “Starting from today OMNIX Albania is withdrawing all its investments in Albania,” the company's statement said.

“This serious criminal act has undermined the efforts of OMNIX Albania, made in the last few years, to build a resort complex worth $450mn in Lalzit Bay in Albania,” business news provider Monitor said, quoting the OMNIX statement.

The project was going to consist of the construction of a resort with five-star hotel, aquapark, shops, bars and restaurants.

It was supposed to create about 1,200 jobs by 2018, and was intended to turn Albania into the top destination in the Adriatic Sea and the Balkans, the statement said.

Prime Minister Edi Rama did not react after the attack on Mitri ten days ago. Now, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, has condemned Rama for staying silent after the incident.

Basha said in a statement that the decision of OMNIX Albania to withdraw from its investment was “bad news” for Albania.