Although corruption remains the main concerned discussed in the meetings
of the Albanian judiciary leaders, this battle has just a few
pro-active investigations. Thyere is a lack of financial investigation, a
lack of coordination of the Court with the probation system, and the
police and Prosecution usage of surveillance that can be accepted by the
judiciary.
These and other matters were presented at the first meeting the judiciary leaders had about the strategy against corruption, including other topics, such as the failure of the High Council of Justice to be a functional mechanism that punishes judges too.
“Only in 2014, the Court of First Instance finally sentenced judges over corruption. NO Prosecution has been sentenced so far. There are many clues showing that the phenomenon is very present in our judiciary”, declared the Constitutionalist Gent Ibrahimi.
The report notes that the asset declaration system has not been effective so that corrupted judges or prosecutors can be brought to justice. This is due to the legal gap, for as long it has not been defined yet what could be considered an evidence after filing a report.
“The police doesn’t have a special dedication to corruption in districts. The specialized corruption investigation structures are situated only in Tirana. There were efforts to give an answer to this issue through the Bureau of Investigation, but there were Constitutional problems”, Ibrahimi declared.
While the numbers for the fight against corruption are still pessimistic, te Prosecutor General of the Romanian National Directory Against Corruption, Laura Codruta Kovesi, spoke very clearly about the distances between our country and the serious efforts to fight corruption.
“More than 52 government officials have been sent to the Court, a former Prime Minister, a former Deputy Prime Minister, nine ministers, 30 Parliament Members and four senators. As regards corruption in the judiciary, we have more than 110 judges sent to this court and 51 Prosecutors. If these figures are not enough, I will tell you those of the past year. 1130 people were sentenced for corruption in one year”, declared Laura Kovesi, prosecutor General of the Romanian National Directory of Anti-Corruption.
During the closed door meeting, the head of the Judge Union brought to attention the murder of judge Skerdilajd Konomi and the fact that this has not been resolved yet. He noted that the life of judges is endangered in Albania.
The representative of the HCJ replied by adding that the figures for the work of the HCJ have not been read properly. However, everyone present were unanimous about something: that our country has concerning corruption.
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