Albania fined to pay compensation for courts deregulations

TIRANA, April 15 – The International Human Rights Court of Strasbourg gave a verdict asking the Albanian government to pay 450,000 Euros and also court expenses to Vrioni family due to the irregularities noticed in the court procedures in the tiny Balkan country.
The fine is to be paid within three months after it turns final.
That has not been the case when individuals from Albania have sued the government and have won.
This time there was a case of a spot of land in Tirana. The litigants, who live in Italy, could not resolve it in the Albanian courts and turned to the Strasbourg court.
Their father’s property was confiscated with some 1,400 square meters after World War II when he was declared guilty for political reasons. The land was sold to another person but it was also reinstated to the old owners in 1992. That became a legal dispute that could not be resolved from the Albanian courts.
But after the Strasbourg Court verdict and the property compensation remain with the owners who had legally bought it from the authorities.