TIRANA, March 12 – Delays in the implementation of the judicial reform and the overload of work that judges and prosecutors face everyday were the two main issues highlighted in a meeting conducted among judges, prosecutors, lawyers, professors, diplomats and civil society representatives on Monday.
According to them, malfunctions in Tirana’s judicial system begin in the unfit infrastructure which can be found, among other places, in Tirana’s district court providing only seven courtrooms for the 25 judges of the penal court, three of which with a coop for the accused.
The civil courtroom is reportedly worse, with as much space for 51 judges.
“Each judge has approximately 10-12 hearings per day, and announces three decisions per day, and all these require their own time to think and go over,” said head of Tirana’s Court of First Instance Enkeledi Hajro.
Judges also said the courts’ map should be revised in addition to their work overload. They said work overload damages the quality of work, and that other districts’ court should gather to unify all procedures the High Court cannot.
“The new changes in the procedural penal code, implemented hastily, did not offer judges enough time to study them, because it shortened the scrutiny period to 3-5 days while, even without the new changes, judges are overloaded with work,” Hajro added.
In relation to the judicial reform, independent observes said different prosecutors and politicians worked against the reform from its beginning, leading to an intentional, almost two-year procrastination.
According to experts in the room, the independent qualification council should have started hearings months ago and that new institutions should have already been established, as opposed to losing the ‘element of surprise’ and giving time to affected high-rank officials to hide their assets and wealth.
In addition, they mentioned the big number of judges and prosecutors which will be affected by the judicial reform will make it more difficult for the small remaining part to put justice towards corrupt high-rank officials.
Lastly, judges in Tirana are often sent to help in smaller district courts often working with less than six judges, such as Dibra, Lac and Kruja, but even bigger ones like the Durres and Elbasan district courts, but also have to do go through reevaluations sent by the High Court.
The almost 600 prosecutors – three per each working judge are also waiting for the new judicial map to be drafted after the establishment of the High Judicial Court.
