President orders investigation of judges who acquitted Justice Revenge defendants

The investigation started by request of the President of Albania, Bujar Nishani, after the Court found the defendants for the “Justice Revenge” organization not guilty, even suggesting that the organization had not really existed.

10 people were accused 21 years ago of being part of an organized criminal group called “Justice Revenge”, which was considered by the then Berisha government as responsible for several serious crimes between 1994 and 1996, such as the murder of the General Chief of police, and robberies against the former pyramid scheme companies, Vefa and Gjallica.

Two of the accused were kept in prison while the trial continued for decades. Eight others were sheltered in foreign countries as asylum seekers, after claiming that the accusations were made up by the Berisha government, which was facing popular rebellions at that time.

Yesterday, after 21 years, the 10 members were acquitted by the Appeal Court for Serious Crimes, which ruled that the evidence were forged. This decision was based on the testimony of handwriting specialists, who said that the “platform” of the Justice Revenge group was not written by Altin Arapi, and that the writing was faked to make it look similar to his.

The former Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, reacted after the verdict and said that the verdict was in fact forced by Edi Rama.

The Judges in question are Alaudin Malaj, Artur kalaja, Stavri Kallco, Sotiraq Lubonja and Etleva Temo.

The HCJ will investigate the activity of the judges for illegal decision-making.

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