USAID project integral to uncovering corruption case in Tirana Court

Monday, August 21, 2017
Tirana Court Chairwoman cites USAID and OSCE project work as integral to uncovered corruption in Tirana Court.
Panorama

Tirana Court Chairwoman Enkeledi Hajro was interviewed by an Albanian newspaper regarding the case of the 300 court files found in her court’s archives that have not been sent for recourse to the High Court during the 2006-2015. They were legally obligated to be sent as per the litigants’ requests. Hajro said one of the main factors enabling the discovery of the files were the findings of the USAID/OSCE “Justice Without Delays” project, which found that about 50 percent of court hearings were delayed due to problems with notifications. Hajro had then ordered an inquiry on the possibility of delayed recourses, leading to the 300 files being uncovered from the archives. The chief secretary and one of the court secretaries were dismissed from duty on charges of abuse of office and will be criminally prosecuted, although they claim to have acted according to instructions from higher officials. She concluded by saying that though delays up to two or three years were considered normal due to problems with notifications, address system and other issues, ten-year delays cannot be justified.