By Urita Dokle
TIRANA, July 19 – A Supreme Court judge in Albania has been suspended and charged with corruption after allegedly taking a 50,000 Euro bribe to influence a court ruling over some properties in the southern Albanian coastal city of Saranda.
Prosecutors told Tirana Times that judge Majlinda Andrea took a 50,000 Euros bribe earlier in July to rule in favor of a plaintiff in a civil case involving some properties in the area close to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint.
According to prosecutors, the judge’s husband Odhise Andrea, a counselor at the committee for national security in Albania’s parliament was also involved in the transaction.
The civil case was submitted to court at the beginning of July 2016 for a preliminary review. The plaintiffs Ilia à‡abiri and Eleni Lino were engaged in finding a middleman and paying a lucrative bribe to Judge Andrea for her to rule in their favor. Prosecutors identified Petraq Dashi as the middleman and also an acquaintance of Odhise Andrea who paid the large sum to push the judge in ruling in favor of the claimants and granting them a 40 hectares land in Butrint.
Few hours before the Supreme Court approved the arrest warrant for Judge Andrea and her husband, the two fled the country making it impossible for the police to go ahead with the arrest. Prosecutors believed that some fellow judges tipped Andrea off, forcing her to leave the country in an attempt to escape justice. They claim that they sent the arrest warrant to the Supreme Court on Thursday while the Court only managed to give the final approval by Friday afternoon. Meanwhile the couple had fled Albania Friday morning. Police arrested Ilia Cabiri, Eleni Lino and Petraq Dashi for their involvement in the corruptive case.
Three days later, judge Andrea returned to Albania from the Italian city of Bari crossing the Durres Port without her husband who is still on the run.
Majlinda Andrea was appointed to the Supreme Court in July 8 2008 by a decree signed by former President Bamir Topi. She was part of several judge panels that issued controversial rulings in many trial and cases.
Although prosecutors have yet to question judge Andrea, Minister of Justice Ylli Manjani condemned the latest case of corruption in Albania’s highest judicial institutions. He argued that the justice reform must be approved once and for all because “any delay intensifies the agony and forces judges to work as if it is their last day in the job.” Authorities are also investigating Andrea’s wealth and assets. In 2015, Andrea declared 1.5 million Lek (Euro 11,000) in annual wage income and a family deposit of 20,000 Euros. Her husband declared a 1.1 million Lek (Euro 8,000) in annual salaries whereas her son a 798,000 Lek in salary. Her assets also include an apartment in the capital worth 30,000 Euros.
The declaration submitted to Albania’s High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets, HIDAA, in fact revealed that Andrea’s assets and wealth is not extraordinary or suspicious at least compared to other judges whose assets have escaped scrutiny. The assets declarations of judges submitted in the last decade reveal that at least 25 judges from Tirana’s Appeal Court have millions of Euros in cars, real estate and savings. One of the cases involved the Gjin Gjoni, a member of Albania’s High Council of Justice and judge at Tirana Appeals Court.
HIDAA accused Gjoni of failing to account for 2 million euro of his wealth but the case was closed based on court order that challenged the prosecutor’s office probe on procedural grounds.
