TIRANA, Albania – The last decision of the judicial vetting commission on Monday was to fire from the system appeals court judge Etleva Temo, thus leaving the Korca Appeals Court with just one judge. Temo was found to have undisclosed or unjustified issues relevant to her properties and with conflict of interest in some trials which affected her quality of judgement. Likewise most of the judges and prosecutors vetted so far have been fired for similar problems, a clear sign of the existing corruption in the judiciary.
The judicial reform was approved more than 4 years ago, deciding that all the levels of courts and prosecutors’ offices would be vetted for the criteria of wealth, integrity and professionalism. Only a minority of them, 80, have passed it and more than 100 have failed, including top judges and prosecutors in the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and in the Prosecutor General’s office.
There is a strong pressure from the European Union on Albanian institutions to fill two vacant places of judges of the Constitutional Court so that to make it functional. The same could be said for the High Court, who has more than 30,000 delayed cases waiting for consideration.
Albania’s judicial system is partially functioning as the places go vacant due to the vetting process and cannot be replaced easily.
Experts have been wary of the justice reform design failure to predict for such a scenario. The way the vetting has been carried out has apparently caused significant delays that will have a negative impact on functionality for the medium term.
