Following the resignation of Genti Shala, the case of former Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri has been assigned to Judge Enton Dhimitri at the High Court. However, despite the fact that the file has been waiting for years to be reviewed, a date for the hearing has not yet been set and, consequently, the two members of the Criminal Panel who will review it have not been announced.
The former Interior Minister was sentenced to five years in prison for abuse of office, a sentence that was reduced to 3.4 years due to the benefit of a summary trial.
The former Serious Crimes Prosecutor's Office investigated Tahiri and charged him with drug trafficking and participation in a structured criminal group, but he was found not guilty of these charges.
According to the prosecution, Tahiri had favored the Habilaj criminal group in the trafficking of narcotics from Albania to Italy. The former MP served part of his sentence in Fier prison, while in 2020 he was released by decision of the Elbasan Court, which accepted his request to replace the prison sentence with the alternative measure of "staying at home", due to his and his wife's health conditions.
