FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Albania's Chief Prosecutor admits that this has become common practice, but no one is worried.
Almost a year ago, in the Albanian Parliament, in May 2024, there was a debate during the hearing session for the annual activity report with the Prosecutor General, Olsi Çela, and the President of the ILD, Artur Metani, about the deadlines for registering the name in the criminal case register for persons under investigation, which is heavily speculated at the expense of the deadlines for the accused.
A 2002 decision of the Supreme Court that regulated this legal issue continues to be unimplemented even in 2024. Chief Prosecutor Olsian Çela admitted in the session that “this is an instrument that facilitates the prosecutor's position in relation to the investigation, giving him increased opportunities, but penalizes citizens and here I think the main thing is the protection of citizens.” (Albanian Parliament. May 23, 2024)
It is about the repressive methods used by the prosecution and which SPAK has elevated to art as a working method, where suspects are questioned as persons under investigation without registering and blackmailing them, while they do not register after the deadlines expire and prosecutors are unable to prove the charges.
It is a slanderous repressive technique, which prosecutors have now turned into law, even though there is a unifying Supreme Court decision prohibiting it.
Albania's Chief Prosecutor admits that this has become common practice, but no one is worried.
The Laws Committee has also raised the same concern with the High Inspector of Justice, emphasizing that there is a frightening number of failed court hearings, which translate into damage to the state budget from this practice of prosecutors.
The MPs have criticized the High Inspectorate of Justice for not paying attention to the way security measures are taken, which even when taken, serve as a repressive tactic in favor of the prosecution, harming citizens.
You have all of this in the minutes of the hearing on May 23, 2024 with the High Inspector of Justice and the Prosecutor General, Olsi Çela.
The Chief Prosecutor has acknowledged the scandal, while the High Inspector of Justice has been informed of the scandal, but the practice has continued.
The point is, Erion Veliaj was questioned as if he were a person registered for criminal prosecution, while he was in the capacity of a person in the know. Everything is done so that from the moment of questioning he does not waste time until the prosecutor finds the facts that justify the decision he has made with his mind to punish him at all costs.
And here we come to a new problem, the weight of responsibility that the court takes on due to this repressive practice of prosecutors.
Since prosecutors are free to violate the law, and even make this a common practice, then judges who are wiretapped without a court order by SPAK are forced to notarize a repressive process.
In fact, to avoid any deviation from notarization, they organize media pressure campaigns on judges, as is happening with this judge in the Veliaj case, inventing news about financial and psychological pressures on him. And all this is done to cover up and prevent any decision from the court against the repressive security measures that prosecutors have implemented as a working practice.
But the problem is not simply with the bailiff.
When high-profile politicians go to trial and when SPAK and the Special Court do their best with them, the case is not closed so easily and so quickly. When a citizen sees how a former president, former prime minister or mayor is unable to protect his rights, he naturally has no hope of protecting his own rights.
But, on the other hand, a culture of legal battle with prosecutors and their repression will begin to emerge in Albania, and just as politicians are becoming examples of impunity for corruption, so too will some of them end up becoming examples for life for the standard with which they operate in relation to the law.
The financial costs that such prosecutorial blunders cause to the state, as noted in the hearing in the Assembly, and above all the failures to investigate corruption and the conclusion of all cases in vetting with evidence requested along the way, show that decisions were made and lists were drawn up first, and then investigations began.
Life is not 24 hours long, the anxiety of a court hearing lasts, and the battle does not end in a courtroom.
Unlike citizens, politicians or public figures have the ability and psychological liberation to take the battle against repression to the end, and here all sides must be weighed carefully. Especially those who think that because they have been chosen to punish, they are impunity.
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