It is the year 2022. It has been more than five years since the vetting process began, more than 3 years since a large number of judges have been dismissed due to their inability to justify their financial means. A significant number of former judges already practice the profession of lawyer, this is allowed by the legal provisions agreed between the Chamber of Advocates and politics. The responsibility on the unjustified wealth of these former magistrates is still orphaned.
Authors: Dallandyshe Xhaferri and Esmeralda Pashollari
On February 10 of this year, the Assembly of Albania approved with 118 votes in favor the extension by 36 months of the function of the bodies responsible for the smooth running of the transitional evaluation process of the magistrates of the Republic of Albania, with all the constituent institutions, the Independent Qualification Commission, Special Board of Appeal and Public Commissioners.
According to the analyzes made by the Legislative Council, in four years of activity, the Justice Reform bodies have managed to re-evaluate a large part of the files of judges and prosecutors, but 1/3 of them still remain in the process or not started.
Until today, the vetting bodies have made the decision to dismiss 122 judges and 75 prosecutors, since the beginning of the vetting process in Albania and until June 30 of this year, while the process has been interrupted for 49 judges. and 21 prosecutors.
"To date, the Commission has not dismissed any re-evaluation subject solely for the professional criterion," the official written response of the KPC states, noting that "the majority of dismissal decisions belong to those subjects who were unable to pass the asset criterion filter . "
According to this institution, until June 30, 2022, 217 of its decisions have been appealed to the KPA, among which those who have been dismissed and those who have resigned according to Article G of the Constitutional Annex, or in cases where the process ended without a final decision.
"119 of them are dismissed judges," the response states, while it is claimed that the KPK has made the decision to dismiss 75 prosecutors, one inspector from the ILD and one from the KLGJ, while not even 2 legal assistants have been dismissed.
Although the approval of the Reform in Justice in July 2016 has been described as a historic decision, the observations made by the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism show that many former judges dismissed during the vetting process have not been excluded from the Justice System itself. .
"Over 90% of former judges and prosecutors who did not pass the Vetting process have registered their law offices," sources from the Albanian Bar Association told ACQJ, noting that there are 12,000 licensed lawyers across the country, but only 3,600 of them are active.
From magistrates to lawyers
"We will not become a haven for those who are expelled by Vetting, we want a dignified profession," said Maks Haxhia, head of the Chamber of Advocates, in 2018, before the adoption of the new Law on Advocacy.
During discussions on this law, in the Laws Committee in July 2018, there was an initial consensus among lawmakers, led by MPs Ulsi Manja and Bashkim Fino, that magistrates excluded from the vetting process would not be admitted to the ranks of lawyers.
"Of course we cannot allow those we have thrown out of the courtroom to enter through the window," Ulsi Manja asserted at the time.
Haxhia, in the discussions of the Commission, has changed his position and opposed the proposals of the majority deputies, due to the conflict of the relevant provisions with the principles of the practice of the legal profession.
As a result, during the adoption of this law, all parties withdrew from the initial affirmations, and the new law on advocacy no longer provides for such prohibitions.
Now, 4 years later, a large number of former judges and prosecutors excluded from the justice system have received the license to practice the profession of lawyer from this institution.
Following a request for comment from the ACQJ, the Albanian Bar Association asserts that the "non-permission to exercise the profession of lawyer" apart from contradicting the right protected by the constitution to exercise a profession, cannot revoke the diploma of jurists.
But who are the magistrates excluded from the ranks of the judiciary who have found shelter near the Chamber of Advocates?
Ervin Metalla, the former Tirana Appeal judge, was finally dismissed from the KPA in October 2019, after he had received an undeserved soft loan by executing fictitious contracts. At the time, the judge said that ironically it seemed as if he had set a trap for himself to get a soft loan, but distanced himself from having any connection to the estate of his brother, Eugen Metalla.
In 2013, he started working at the Court of Appeal in Tirana, while according to the declaration and justification of his assets in the period 2003-2017, only 4.2% of the family income of 16.7 million lek was generated as a result of teaching as an external lecturer at the Faculty of Law. In the declaration of assets after 2017, part of the former judge's income was generated from his role as an expert in the continuing training program of the magistrate's school.
At the beginning of 2020, Metalla is registered as a natural person at the CKB, after he started exercising the function of lawyer, legal advisor in the capital. According to the data published in the National Business Center, the annual income registered in the law office of Metalla amounts to 4,231,234.00 ALL.
Another former judge who appears as a lawyer in the CCB is Artan Broci, a former member of the Supreme Court, who during the period 1995-1997 also worked as an assistant lecturer in the Administrative Law Course at the Faculty of Law. After his dismissal in 2019 from the KPA, he did not spare accusations, describing this institution as "the Prime Minister's political commissar who cannot escape political orders."
Broci reacted at the time by emphasizing that his legal battle would continue until the end, although according to the investigation carried out, the KPK stated that the judge had problems with the properties. He had obtained an apartment in a vacant building in Tirana, as well as examined the issue of the construction company of the building not giving the right to compensation to a group of people. From the statements made public, it results that in the financial statement of his new legal firm, for the year 2019 the total income for Broci's law office amounts to 162,825.00 lek, for 2020, 1,676,185.00 lek and for 2021 5,599,680.00 lek, with a total income from activity as a lawyer for three years in 7,438,690.00 ALL.
Ahmet Jangulli, former judge of the Shkodra Administrative Court, dismissed in 2019 after it turned out that he had problems justifying his wealth, professionalism and clean image, has been practicing law in Shkodra since 2020. According to the data made public, Jangulli provides legal advice and consultancy in various fields. During the research in public documents on Open Corporates and the Central Bank, we noticed that Jangulli has not yet made his financial statements public , thus not making his income public.
Artan Lazaj, the former member of the Tirana Court was dismissed by the KPK and then in January 2019, by the KPA (Special Appeal Panel) for false declaration of assets. In 2018, the former judge accused the head of the KPK, Brunilda Bektashi, of serious procedural violations, although his evidence showed problems in the justification of wealth.
In 2019, Lazaj was registered with the CKB as a natural person offering legal consultancy, lawyer and official translations. Meanwhile, according to research on the website of the CKB, we notice that the former member of the Court of Tirana has not declared his annual income.
The number of former magistrates who have opened law firms after their dismissal from the judicial bodies, but after their creation for years there is a lack of declaration of their financial activity is high, among which former judges such as Arben Zefi, Agron Valva, Kostika Çobanaqi, Gjin Gjoni, Entela Prifti, Ramadan Troci, Bujar Hoti and many others.
Roland Jaupaj is one of them. The former President of the Court of Fier, dismissed for non-justification of wealth, turns out to be registered with the KKB as a natural person, who also provides legal Services. In 2020, the Special Appeals Chamber (KPA) overturned some of the KPK's findings for the judge, which were related to the sale of an apartment to his parents at a preferential price, but did not overturn the decision to exclude him from the Justice System. From the research on the KKB website, it turns out that even former judge Jaupaj has not publicly declared the income generated by the activity of the law office.
Even Bashkim Dedja, the former head of the Constitutional Court, who was expelled by a decision of the KPA in December 2018, for problems in justifying his assets, within a month after this decision, he registered with the CKB as a law firm. The income generated by the former judge from his activity as a lawyer has not yet been made public in Open Corporates and the CKB.
The former head of the Tirana Court, Enkeledi Hajro, was dismissed in January 2021 for not justifying the assets of 25 euros. Only 000 months later, in March of last year, the former judge started offering consultancy and legal representation as a lawyer, assistance for recruitment for human resources, planning, management and implementation of projects in the field of Justice, etc.
Hysni Demiraj, the former head of the Court of Appeal of Tirana was initially dismissed by the decision of the KPK in February 2019, where, in addition to not justifying his wealth during the hearing, he also faced denunciations by citizens and judges of the Appeal for several judicial decisions, which the Commissioner described as "problematic". Among these decisions was the security measure for the former "January 21" guards. This decision was then left in force also by the KPA on 13.07.2020.
According to the extract released by the KKB, Demiraj registered his Law office in September 2020, i.e. only a few months after his dismissal. But despite his active status, he has not performed any financial actions, or at least none of them have been declared to the tax authorities.
Unlike the judges above, former prosecutor Dritan Rreshka was expelled from the Justice System in July 2019. Although he appealed the decision of the KPC, the Special Appellate Panel, chaired by Albana Shtylla, after two days of re-evaluation, decided to uphold the KPC decision. “ The panel concluded that the subject of the re-evaluation, Dritan Rreshka, has made an insufficient declaration of assets in accordance with Article 61, point 3, of Law No. 84/2016,” the decision published by the KPA stated.
Since March 2020, former prosecutor Rreshka is registered as a natural person at the National Business Center, as he offers legal Services to legal and physical individuals, Albanians and foreigners.
According to the data published in the financial statement of the legal Services office of the former prosecutor, it turns out that his total income as a natural person for the year 2021 is 9,960,880.00 ALL, a significant amount, when even after the justice reform, the salary the average of a district prosecutor captures an annual average of 2,700,000.00 ALL per year.
Other former prosecutors who turned out to have registered their law offices are Adriatik Cama, who was expelled from the Justice System in 2019, while only a month later he started practicing the profession of lawyer; Artur Selmani, former prosecutor in the General Prosecutor's Office, was dismissed from the Judiciary after he was considered unfit to continue the trial, following the complaints of the families of several victims who lost their lives from the events of 1997 in Vlora. In November 2019, he registered the law office with the KKB. but after almost 3 years, these two lawyers still have not made public the income generated from this activity.
Shkëlzen Selimi, after his dismissal from the judicial bodies in 2019, founded the law firm "Inter Partners" in 2021, whose activity has brought income during the same year in the amount of 7,495,804.00 ALL.
Guxim Zenelaj, after his dismissal in 2019, continued his activity as a lawyer in the law office "Crown International Legal Office", an activity that he had started even before the confrontation with the vetting bodies, in 2018. For 2018 , this office had income in the amount of 1,223,325.00 ALL, while for 2019, a loss in the amount of 1,190,688.00 ALL. The declared losses of this legal office continued for the years 2020 and 2021, with a total of ALL 1,543,838.00.
Arjana Fullani, after the interruption of the vetting process, due to the latter's renunciation of participation in justice institutions, has opened her own legal studio within the year, through which she has achieved financial income in the amount of ALL 2,824,786.00. in three years of declared activity.
Even the former president of the Durrës Court, Joana Qeleshi, after being dismissed from the judiciary, opened her legal office "Qeleshi and Associates", through which, for the year 2021 alone, she had income in the amount of ALL 3,133,006.00.
The Vetting process started with problems
Jurist Jordan Daci told ACQJ that the Justice Reform started with several problems, among which was the lack of a mechanism that would replace dismissed or resigned jurists.
"The Magistrates' School, despite all the additions that have been made, cannot fill the gaps for years," says Daci, according to whom this fact has caused the effect of the reform to fade in the face of the gridlock that has occurred in some courts, where there is a shortage of judges and prosecutors and where the length of a decision has reached unusual levels.
"When the implementation of the Justice Reform began, it was thought that a large portion of the judges and prosecutors who were to leave would resign, but that did not happen," says Daci, who indicates that magistrates took advantage of every deadline to work and resigned the moment they appeared before the trial.
"If this had been foreseen by the Constitutional Court and it had been decided not to allow resignation outside the deadline, the effect of the possibility of leaving the Justice System itself would have been greater," - underlines Daci, who adds that the position within the Justice System, although some judges were aware of the dismissal, affects the making of unwise decisions on their part. "Not to mention that we can think of other variants, which are not necessarily in line with the ethics of the magistrate", - says Daci.
Vojsava Osmanaj is a judge at the Court of Appeal in Shkodër, who for almost a year underwent the Vetting process, which she passed successfully. According to her, the justification of wealth was one of the biggest difficulties that judges and prosecutors encountered during the process, also because of the informality that has characterized Albanian society in the economic field.
"We have encountered difficulties in convincingly proving with documentary evidence every fact and burden of proof that was assigned to us, considering the informal society to which we belong and the way our state has functioned these years," she says, adding that during the development of the Justice Reform, judges and prosecutors have become part of two questionnaire forms drafted by the Independent Qualification Commission.
"The first questionnaire, conducted on September 9, 2019, included 12 standard questions for all judges and prosecutors, which would pave the way for all further verifications," says Osmanaj, who emphasizes that the second questionnaire conducted on May 14, 2020, was built on the basis of 10 questions "that were formulated and raised after a detailed analysis of all assets, self-declaration forms and relevant issues, the need for further clarifications," says Osmanaj.
To the question whether the return of judges and prosecutors to the justice system as lawyers after being excluded from the vetting process shows the fragility of the reform, Osmanaj answers that "the reform falters" at the moment when an honest judge or prosecutor is unjustly removed from the system "and not based on what career he pursues after being excluded from the reform."
"As long as the Constitution or the package of Justice Reform laws or other substantive laws have not prohibited the practice of this profession by former judges or prosecutors, no one can evaluate or regulate it differently," concludes Osmanaj.
For lawyer Jordan Daci, despite the problems, the reform will affect the improvement of the justice system.
“I think the new trends in the Justice System are promising and qualitative,” says Daci, who underlines the fact that during the implementation of the reform there have been cases of magistrates who have remained in the system, although they should have left it. “However, I think that overall it will have a positive effect,” he concludes.
It is 2022. It has been more than five years since the vetting process began, more than 3 years since a large number of judges have been dismissed due to their inability to justify their financial means. A significant number of former judges already practice the profession of lawyer, this is allowed by the legal provisions agreed between the Chamber of Advocates and politics.
A large number of former judges practice their profession and have not filed any data on their financial activity, and despite reports that SPAK pledged in 2020 that it would verify all judges and prosecutors dismissed by the vetting process, and despite calls from the Minister of Justice of the time, to date, only sporadic cases have been investigated and brought to trial, while former judges continue to function within the judicial system, but now on the other side of the courtroom.
