Scenarios for the Temporary Prosecutor General

The situation is such that the new Prosecutor will have a temporary duty, and he may be appointed by just a small number of votes from the majority.

The first scenario on the internal memo of the Parliament services, is the one foreseen by the Constitution: “The Prosecutor General is appointed with 84 votes between three candidates proposed by the High Council of the Judiciary”. But the memo also notes that the High Council of the Judiciary has not been established yet. This is why the conditions set by the Constitution cannot be followed.

This is why the memo goes to the second moment, which is about what happens when the Prosecutor’s term has expired, and the High Council of the Prosecution has not been formed yet. This situation is foreseen by the temporary dispositions of the Prosecution’s law. In this case, the Parliament decides that the functions of the Prosecutor General should be filled by the Prosecutor with most experience, and who fulfills the legal requirements.

The requirements are related to years of work, scientific titles, etc. But the main condition is the Vetting Law. As we speak, no one has been through the Vetting process, although all of prosecutors are being vetted. This is why this criterion has to be overlooked. The other criteria include experience and scientific titles. The most experienced Prosecutors are Thoma Jano and Adnan Kosova, both members of the Prosecution Genera, but none of them has a scientific title.

Ferdinand Elezi has a scientific title, with a career starting from the Saranda and Kavaja Police, to the Prosecution of Appeal in Durres.

Henrik Ligori, at the Prosecution of Serious Crimes, also has a scientific title. He is the husband of the former Socialist MP, Shegushe Ligori.

There are other Prosecutors with scientific titles, such as Dritan Rreshka, member of the Tirana Task Force, and Olsi Cela, at the Serious Crimes.

But can these professional criteria be taken into account when the main one, the Vetting, has not been fulfilled yet?

The majority seems to consider the implementation of the Vetting criteria as unnecessary, since the judiciary institution has not been established, and since no one has been vetted yet.

The opposition, on the other hand, says that the temporary disposition of the Constitution should be taken into account, as the supreme law, and get the Prosecutor approved with 84 votes in Parliament.

But the majority doesn’t have 84 votes. This situation leads to the choice of having the Temporary Prosecutor appointed by simple majority, with more than half of the Parliament’s half. The Parliament has 140 MPs, half of its half is 35, and one more is 36.

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