TIRANA, Aug 10 – In Albania, the Justice and Interior Ministry strongly opposed on Wednesday the decision of Vlora Judge Herila à‡ela to punish an individual arrested two times within a few months only with house arrest.
The case refers to 28-year-old Taulant Manaj from Vlora, arrested early in February this year, for “attempted murder” and “illegal weapons possession” .
He was initially left on house arrest by the Vlora Court of Appeals, but in June he ended up in jail again after breaking house arrest, while being found again with illegal weapons.
Despite his history of arrests, à‡ela decided to remove the measure of imprisonment, changing it into house arrest a couple of days ago.
“Today, the Ministry of Justice has asked the Inspectorate of the High Council of Justice to urgently investigate the actions of the judge regarding the case. We will pursue the case and propose to the HCJ to take measures in proportion to the violation, including the dismissal of the judge if necessary,” said Deputy Minister of Justice Toni Gogu, after the case was made public in the media.
Deputy Minister of Interior Besfort Lamallari spoke of decision “bordering to absurd” which, according to him, “has questioned all the struggle and sacrifices made so far.”
According to the Ministry of Interior, there have been more than 18 cases when district courts have made soft decisions against individuals who were arrested carrying illegal weapons, who attempted armed robbery, or who broke security measures and carried weapons in the city, becoming public danger.
“Maybe judges who have and continue to issue decisions likes the latter one, think they will get away by simply being filtered out of the system, but no. After the end of the vetting, everyone will be punished, because the vetting does not simply mean getting the trash out of the Justice palace, but the tool that will guarantee justice puts justice into place.”
