Court or shield for crime?!...
Editorial: Court or shield for crime?!... Albanian justice continues to be one of the fields where chaos and lawlessness, corruption and banditry continue to coexist. For a long time, many have spoken of irresponsible judges, of fake lawyers serving as judges, appointed as such solely for party services or for offices run by SHIK, but this serious wound has still not been properly addressed; without healing it, there can be no talk of a state governed by law, of a state under the rule of law that protects citizens’ freedoms, rights and dignity. Groups of mercenaries continue regularly to break the law; various people have been reported for their criminal acts, and yet they are seen out on the streets instead of answering for their crimes before the law. A few days ago, Sali Berisha’s bodyguard, who had earlier been declared wanted, was apprehended by police forces after being caught in the act carrying an unlicensed weapon. Yet, instead of applying the law, the judge abuses the powers granted to him by law and changes the detention measure for a man who was caught on the steps of the Palace of Culture with a pistol and a grenade at his waist. Not because he is Berisha’s bodyguard, but because he flagrantly violated the law, and because he had previously been reported for another criminal offense: together with two others, he had beaten the chairman of the National Unity Party, Idajet Beqiri. He should have been punished severely, as all those who pose a danger to society deserve. Someone might say that determining the legal measure is the judge’s prerogative. That is certainly true, but when a judge protects incriminated people, using the law as a façade, the least that can be said is that he does not deserve to continue working as a man of the law—without even mentioning that, in a normal country, cases like this could lead to criminal prosecution. With people like this, Albanian justice continues to oppose the measures and recommendations of Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the responsible political authorities, and the entire Albanian public’s opinion on building a state governed by law and its normal institutions. We know how much this harms the country, and all of Europe too. Is that what we should say, or are we being deceived?