Albanian president issues statement denouncing head of the Justice Council

STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

H.E. ILIR META

President Meta: EVIDENCE THAT PROVE THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF THE ACCUSED ARDIAN DVORANI

Today I am here to inform the public opinion and the responsible institutions of new facts bringing to light on the criminal activity of the accused in court Ardian Dvorani, during his 2019 chairmanship of the Justice Appointments Council. Additional documentation will be prepared and added to the criminal report I filed in November 2019 for this citizen. This will deepen the criminal investigation against him for the criminal offenses he has consumed, as the accused Ardian Dvorani should immediately be stopped from committing criminal activity through abuse of public office, with the pure intention, prompted by political pressure, to capture the Constitutional Court!”, stated the presidency statement.

Today, I’m here in front of you, to tell you how far the mafia coordination for the capturing of the justice goes, when:
– The Speaker of the Assembly, by letter no. prot. 3973, dated 8 November 2019, addresses the Chair of JAC, requesting information on the progress of the process of appointing / electing members of the Constitutional Court; and when

– The accused ArdianDvorani, who is still left free to exercise public office, responds within a day to the request of the Speaker of the Assembly, with letter no. prot. 716/1, dated November 8, 2019, by:
• Misinforming and concealing information on the expressed willingness and administered by a written document by the President of the Republic for the exercise of his powers in appointing a member of the Constitutional Court, according to the vacancy announced; and
• in his personal capacity, without holding any meeting of the Justice Appointments Council, without having the legal power to respond on such matters and even less to perform interpretations of the laws and the Constitution, ascertains as he was the body of the appointment itself; the election of a member of the Constitutional Court.

Through this communication by letters, the denouncedArdianDvorani, without any competence expressed in the Constitution or law, and deceiving the local and international opinion, distorted the facts and abused his office in order to steal in cooperation with the Assembly from the President of the Republic the power to appoint a member of the Constitutional Court.
The denounced ArdianDvorani, who still holds the office of the Chair of JAC, must now respond to SPAK, that:
– Why did he not gather the Justice Appointments Council to consider and comment on the letter of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania?
– Is it in his power to determine the will of the whole Council, representing it in relations with third parties, without obtaining the authorization of the members of this Council?
– Who he collaborated with, or who ordered, to prepare, sign, and transmit in record time, within hours, a response to a gross violation of any legal right and obligation under his personal responsibility and political dictate!
– While the Council, only 1 day earlier, at its meeting of 7 November 2019, agreed that it could not comment on the position of the President of the Republic, as it would constitute an exceeding of powers, how could ArdianDvorani break this Council rule, to respond to the request of the Assembly?

II. On the process of the oath of Constitutional Judges.

On December 30, 2019, the Speaker of the Assembly of Albania forwarded the request to the Venice Commission no. 4351 prot, dated 30.12.2019, for giving an opinion on the process of appointing judges of the Constitutional Court.

Three of the questions of the Albanian Parliament to the Venice Commission are:
– Can the President not organize the swearing-in ceremony of a constitutional judge when he / she is considered appointed in terms of law? In this case, is a constitutional judge’s right to exercise his or her position considered infringing?
– If the President does not organize the constitutional judge’s oath ceremony, given the solemn oath of office as an act, what mechanism can be used to unlock such a situation?
– Is a written oath a form to fulfill the oath of office, to begin the exercise of office, in a situation where a judge has been appointed to office for the purposes of law?

– What could be the solutions according to the best international standards to avoid cases where the body in charge of taking the oath refuses to call the official for oath?
In this letter, the Assembly of Albania expresses to the Venice Commission that it remains awaiting the required opinion.

But what happened next? !!.
Based on the request of the Albanian Assembly and the President of the Republic, the Venice Commission confirmed to the Assembly that on 13-14 February 2020 a delegation of this Commission will visit Tirana on a fact-finding mission and meet with representatives of the Assembly to discuss on this issue.
The Assembly of Albania, in the most irresponsible, treacherous and immoral manner, while the members of the Venice Commission delegation had arrived in Tirana, just hours before meeting with them, on the 12th of February 2020, late in the afternoon, votes in the plenary session on the Draft Law “On some Additions and Amendments to Law No. 8577/2000“ On the Organization and Functioning of the Constitutional Court ”.

Exactly with law no. 14, dated 12 February 2020, amends that section of the law regulating the constitutional process of sworn in by the Constitutional Judge, giving its own answer to the questions it was expected to receive from the Venice Commission.

The content of this law, so urgently voted by the Assembly, flagrantly violated Article 129 of the Constitution and all the constitutional principles of the rule of law and the separation and balance of powers.

The voting of this law is another coup of the majority against the Constitution, with the sole purpose of controlling the process of appointing the Judges of the Constitutional Court.

This law aims to bring this process under the political control of the Socialist Party and to promote the integrity of every new member of the Constitutional Court, giving the message that any appointment to this Court will go through political loyalty.

This will never be accepted by the President of the Republic.

This action by the majority, not to wait for the Venice Commission to give an opinion on the matter, is a grave insult to the bodies of the Council of Europe as a whole, the Venice Commission in particular, and the Embassies and Ambassadors who were in support of the majority, to demand that the Venice Commission be called on the matter.

By this action the majority has invited an honorable Commission, but on the other hand has invalidated their visit, delegitimizing the importance of this Commission.

As the President of the Republic, as a representative of the unity of the people and as the Head of State, I apologize to the Venice Commission, that was abused by the majority for the purpose of carrying out the coup, and I assure them that the Republic of Albania, despite experiencing the most difficult situation of state capture on the continent where we live, will not accept the coup by turning the most important institution of justice, the Constitutional Court, into an unconstitutional PPP (Party Police Propaganda) state police.

That is why I will be attending the Venice Commission’s plenary session, so that the whole of Europe becomes aware of the coup d’état taking place in Albania.

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