“An Court of Appeal undermines justice” / In Vlora discussions on the new court map

Representatives from the ranks of lawyers have clearly expressed their opposition to the new court map, which according to them removes the citizen from justice institutions.

Ermal Ahmataj, President of the Bar Association in Fier said at the roundtable: You thought about yourself but not about the citizens. This map is absurd. Deprives justice of citizens. A trial is 5 years late, citizens will no longer turn to justice.

While the lawyer Maks Haxhia, in his capacity as the head of the Albanian Bar Association, was harsh with his attitude, he said that he is confident that the map will be changed.

“Justice reform was unstudied, it failed. No other reform (court map) can be made to resolve the collapse of the former. The practice has failed. The appellate court was a failure, corruption has started in that court. The appeal still has 2015 issues unresolved. Albania is not Tirana, there can be no court only in Tirana. You are massacring justice. Do not lie, you need at least 4 courts of appeal, 4 administrative courts, because you know what will happen, the Assembly covers the issues of citizens. A judge should have 10 advisors, adopt them in the system, you as the governing body of the judiciary should intervene to get justice done. You did not talk about access to justice, which is a criterion that is not accepted even by the Strasbourg Court, this can not be solved by means that destroy it. Life is not only in Tirana, let’s give life to the cities, you went directly to an appellate court. I hope that with our influence, it is good not to go to extremes. To coordinate things a little, to maintain balance and not to harm the communities. No one was fired for personal reasons, they were fired by 100 standards, that they were immigrants and that they could not justify the houses. You are raising the issue of Vetting, they see it and in personal terms, they want to extend it, because they get their own money. They are deciding people who have not even passed Vetting themselves“, Said Haxhiu.

According to the Representatives of the HJC, it was concluded that 12 district courts did not meet the legal requirements for justice reform and therefore it became necessary to create a new judicial map.

According to the drafters of the new Judicial Map, this reform already aims to create easier access to justice, conservation of human resources by reducing the burden, the effectiveness of resolving the court case, etc.

There were also objections from the Appellate Judges present in the courtroom. Judge Sokol Ngresi said that there was no coordination for the drafting of this project.

“The changes that have been made should come in a second moment, the court burden should have been resolved first, as we still have 2015 files in the offices.”

“The justice system was created in the service of the citizens, the system is currently collapsing”, said Kastriot Brahimuco.

Lawyers have raised concerns that costs have not been taken into account either.

“Imagine 150 police vans leaving for Tirana as a security measure, chaos, state costs, citizens’ costs for access to justice. The application of the new Map is in a hurry, as there is more urgency to fill the vacancies created by Vetting. “The new map is a dream to patch up what went wrong with justice reform.” added Pulaj.

Following the objections at the roundtables, it is expected that the reaction of the bar association will be with a total boycott in case their requests and suggestions will not be reflected. They proposed the creation of four Courts of Appeal, in Vlora, Shkodra, Tirana and Korca, while calling the decision to unify into an Court of Appeals, unthinkable and leaving room for corruption undermining justice.

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