Justice Ministers warns for drastic measures

02/12/2013 00:00

With the motive that fight against corruption is Albania’s passport for
the European Union, the Minister of Justice, Nasip Naco, warned for
drastic changes in the judiciary.

Naco published the first details about how the government will reform the Supreme Court, which has a very high number of cases, to the point of looking similar as the First Instance Court.

“We should either increase the number of judges in this court, which is unacceptable for a small country, or limit their competences. Not every case should go at the Supreme Court”, Naco declared.

Reforms are expected at the High Council of Justice, where 23rd of members are elected by judiciary conferences, which, according to the Minister, doesn’t have a positive influence on the HCJ decision-making.

“We don’t want to change numbers, but to add harsher criteria for those who will be appointed by the judiciary conference. It should not be a debt within each other, but a responsible system”, Naco declared.

The Minister adds that this connection between judges and HCJ members hampers this institution and doesn’t allow them to promote new magistrates and include them in the judiciary. After mentioning the case of eight students, for whom the HCJ refused to gather, the Minister of Justice declared that there is another case that raises suspicions about the functionality of the HCJ.

“I can say that only in the last meeting, for the four vacancies at the Court of Appeal in Durres, there were 61 candidacies and only four candidates received 11 votes. It was clear that this meeting had already been done somewhere else”, Naco declared.

The government has presented an anti-corruption package through which they want to prevent corruption in the judiciary. According to the Minister of Justice, if there is good will, corruption could be uncovered even through judges and prosecutors.

“We can ask wealth assessment, see how many times they travel abroad… some of them are doing it now even through Prishtina, to escape the TIMS system. If there is good will from the President, the Minister, the HCJ and the Prosecutor General, things could come very clearly”, Naco declared.

This is the first time that the Justice Minister speaks so openly for the way how the judiciary works.

Antimafia package amend

The Minister of Justice says that for the radical amends in the Justice system, he has asked for help from the Commission of Venice. But the government should face another problem, before that. The OPDAT, an American mission that assists the government in the criminal justice area, has notified the Commission of Laws that the for amends of the Antimafia Law, the government has not consulted with the Mission.

The American experts say that the amends that consider corruption a serious crime that should be treated by the Court and Prosecution of Serious Crimes, specialized in the fight against corruption, expands the duties of these institutions, and that diminishes the attention on organized crime and will not be useful for future achievements.

This is the debate that the Minister of Justice will hold this Wednesday at the Commission of Laws, where the opposition has asked the government to withdraw all legal amends that have not been consulted with experts.

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