Transparency and facts. With this motto the Independent Qualification Commission, (KPK) vetting engine, has begun this week sessions of public hearings of judges and prosecutors claiming to be part of the reformed justice system. Whoever passes the test by this Commission will continue to be a prosecutor or judge in the reformed justice system. Whoever does not pass remains out of the system and a potential subject of prosecution. Coincidentally or not, the first on the list of judges in the process could not pass the test. The commission on Friday (23.03.2018) dismissed a member of the Constitutional Court, Fatos Lulo, who had declared a fortune of around 700,000 euros.
His lawyer failed to bring to the commission, at a public hearing, open to the media, official documents on the source of the property. This is the first case when the Independent Qualification Commission sacks a high-level judge and opens the process of rooting out bribery and corruption in Albanian justice by laying the foundations for a professional, independent judiciary, with judges and prosecutors with moral integrity. The entire vetting process and decisions of this Commission are being monitored by independent international experts.
Dismantling the culture of impunity
The list of names of judges and prosecutors who will go to the vetting site is long, full of 800. Only 2% or 17 judges and prosecutors resigned and were expelled from justice before vetting began, taking advantage of the vetting law that gave them the opportunity. But resignation does not give them the immunity to escape justice without getting a thorn in their feet if they have committed criminal offenses. Justice is showing that it is acting on evidence and facts.
The most significant case is that of former Adriatic Attorney General Llalla, to whom the prosecution has opened large-scale criminal cases of money laundering, although Llalla stated before voluntarily resigning from justice. What the Llala-led prosecution failed to do, which came to the head of the Prosecutor’s Office in 2012 and stayed until the 5-year term ended on December 3, 2017, was initiated by the US State Department. Last month, he made the decision that the former chief prosecutor and his family should be blacklisted and denied access to the US “because of his involvement in major corruption cases”.
Official facts and documents, published in the media, have made transparent to the public the sale and purchase of land, olive groves, large plots and real estate that the former Attorney General bought very cheaply and after their reassessment, sold them 20 -30 times more expensive. Official documents speak of financial transactions with persons with criminal precedents related to serious crimes.
The investigation against former Attorney General Adriatik Llalla is a signal that for the culture of impunity that has been cemented in Albania for more than two decades, the dismantling process has begun. Diplomatic sources in Tirana, who are closely following the process, told DW that the former Attorney General’s case is just the beginning of catching the “big fish” that will soon be followed by other cases.
Rama – time for opening accession negotiations
What Albania has in its hands three weeks before the publication of the Progress Report 2017 is precisely the progress in the reform of justice. Concrete results in the process of clearing justice by corrupt judges and prosecutors have raised Albania’s hopes of opening EU accession negotiations. This is because performing the vetting and its tangible results are the main condition of the EC.
Albania deserves it! With this conviction, Prime Minister Rama has urged in recent days, EU High Representative Mogherini, Commissioner Hahn and the European Parliament to understand that the time has come to open negotiations. “Albania does not seek any gift, nor any favor it does not deserve. Albania is simply seeking to open the negotiations because it deserves it, ”Rama said on Friday, (23.03.2018), in a speech held at the European Parliament.
In addition to this conviction, Prime Minister Rama has recalled as an argument the geopolitical situation in the region, the efforts of Russia and other actors such as China or Turkey to increase their influence. Opening negotiations as progress towards EU accession will “stop the ghosts of the past”, the prime minister stressed in the European Parliament, reminding Euro-parliamentarians that the region known for ethnic conflicts and bloody wars after the 1990s is strengthens peace and co-operation, precisely because its polar star is EU accession. But slowing pace in the integration process could have negative consequences for pro-European citizens of the Western Balkans, when other geo-strategic factors seek to increase their stake in the region, Prime Minister Rama warned in Brussels again.
