The Constitutional Court is expected to officially announce its decision on the request filed by Sali Berisha regarding the three positions of the lower courts on the measure of house arrest. According to expectations, the Constitutional Court will rule in favor of Berisha on the grounds that the duration of his house arrest has been excessive.
To put it simply, after the “compulsion to appear” measure was replaced with “house arrest”, SPAK was obliged to submit to the court every two months a report on the existence of the conditions of the security measure. In practice, SPAK has delayed sending this report by at least five months.
Secondly, according to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for similar cases – specifically when a lighter measure is replaced by house arrest due to non-compliance with it – it is foreseen that the duration of house arrest cannot be so long. In these cases, Strasbourg estimates that the average duration of house arrest should be around two to three months.
In this context, the Constitutional Court is expected to assess that keeping Berisha under house arrest beyond these deadlines was unjustified, overturning the positions of lower courts on this security measure.
