Three Indicted for Bribe on Albania’s Supreme Court

Supreme Court Judge Gani Dizdari

Prosecutors said in a statement that the three suspects had tried to influence the Supreme Court  trial of Vilson Millaraj, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder.

“From the interceptions [phone tapping] it has emerged that two of the suspects were collecting huge sums of money to resolve the case in Millaraj’s favor,” prosecutors said.  

“The person promising to resolve the case in the Supreme Court, Agron Lumeshi, is a relative of the presiding judge [Gani Dizdari],” they added.

Although the Supreme Court on May 11, 2011 upheld the sentence imposed on Millaraj, prosecutors maintain that the suspects had been informed that they were under surveillance and that they were notified of the court's ruling the day before it was issued.  
“From the interceptions it emerges clearly that the suspects were notified of the court’s verdict one day before it was issued,” the statement said.

Through the Supreme Court’s spokesperson, Judge Gani Dizdari told Balkan Insight that he was unaware of “any communication between the court’s panel and the suspects”.

“The Supreme Court has issued a verdict on May, 11, 2011 and the verdict is what it is,” Dizdari said.

Albania’s Supreme Court has been under fire from the public and the media, accused of using dubious procedural grounds to close several high profile corruption cases against government ministers.

Prosecutors in Albania are severely hampered in investigating judges, because they enjoy immunity under the law.

Albania’s General Prosecutor Ina Rama has called several times for a constitutional amendment that would restrict the immunity of judges, in order to strengthen the fight against corruption in the judiciary.

“If the General Prosecutor's Office seeks authorisation to investigate a judge on corruption-related charges, the investigation has already become public and it is difficult to move forward,” she said during a conference on judicial reform in October 2009.

“It's impossible to investigate a judge on corruption if he knows that he is being investigated,” Rama added.
 
However, the Supreme Court judges have been very keen to hold on to their immunity from prosecution and have publicly come out against such a proposal.

A statement presented at a conference on November 18, 2011, in the name of the Supreme Court Judge Ardian Dvorani, argued that Albania “did not have the necessary democratic conditions to remove completely the immunity of judges.”