Justice failed for the year 2023 to give decisions within a reasonable and legal term in Albania, as only in the Court of Tirana, the stock of files has reached 48 thousand 787 cases.
Abdulla Xhani is one of those dozens of citizens who, due to the lack of judges, drags on with no solution as the old man accuses that the courts “forgot his son in prison”.
The son, Ferit Luzi Xhani, was first arrested in 2021 after trying to leave on a motorbike, disobeying the police for a check. For this charge, the young man was then placed under house arrest by the Court of Tirana, a measure which the 30-year-old broke and this was enough to send him back to prison. For both offences, he was tried separately and as soon as he completed his first sentence for the crime of disobeying the police, the prosecution ordered his release.
A later in June 2022, the prosecution concluded that they had miscalculated his prison days and requested his re-arrest, now for the second offense.
In order to pay off the second crime, Feir Luzi Xhani is being kept in a cell from June 21, 2022 and due to the vetting process in the justice system, the case goes from one judge to another.
“They released him and sent him back to prison. There are no judges, they say. But why is this so?”, asks the prisoner’s father, Abdulla Xhani.
The situation is particularly burdensome in civil courts and in administrative courts.
In total, the number of pending cases exceeds 100,000, and according to calculations, every Albanian who has a case in court will need approximately ten years.
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