Alimucaj wins in Strasbourg

The Judge Panel, led by President Nicolas Bratza, voted partially in favor of Mr. Alimucaj by obliging the Albanian state to pay him 8000 EUR and the respective taxes in the local currency, based on the exchange rates of 7 February 2012.

The former director of the Vefa Holding was arrested on April 1998, charged of fraudulent loans. Alimucaj was found guilty in 2002 for defrauding all 57.923 creditors of his company, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

But he gained freedom on May 2010, after receiving two amnesty acts (2002 and 2007), 6 months thanks to his work in prison and 1 year with a Presidential amnesty in 2010.

Since he had serious cardiac and neuro-psychic problems, Alimucaj complained for lacking of the necessary medical attention while in prison.

For this suit he referred to some articles of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, on which he also based the lack of legal predictability for his process and his sentence.

The Strasbourg Court rejected most of Alimucaj’s claims, since the medical reports showed that the illness had progressed due to the continuity of the disease on the individual, but they accepted that article 7 of the Convention (there is no sentence without law), with the arguments that the applicant had received a harsher sentence than what the law provided on the time when the penal act was consumed.

This decision will enter into effect after three months, if none of the parties will appeal.

In that case, the Albanian state will pay 8000 EUR to the 63 year old Alimucaj within 3 months, as the European Court provides, or there will be a higher interest rate for the loans of the Albanian state,.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

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