For weeks now, the country's Prime Minister Edi Rama has been targeting judges and prosecutors as the sole ones responsible, according to him, for the massacre of illegal constructions in the country. He started with Shkodra prosecutor Elsa Gjeli for illegal constructions in Theth, then moved on to administrative court judge Hazbi Balliu who had signed a decision on a temporary security measure for a building in the heart of Tirana where the offices of the State Cadastre Agency were to be relocated.
Klarent Demiri, a member of the administrative court in Tirana, was the prime minister's next target.
Edi Rama targeted what he contemptuously called Judge Ligoraq for a decision that, according to him, protects an unauthorized construction among the palaces in Tirana.
"Judge Ligoraq decided in a few minutes without the presence of the parties, not to open the closed passage from this unauthorized building with a glass dome between two buildings, under which lies a shop where trade is carried out at the expense of the community.
Judge Ligoraq did not see fit to side with the community trapped by this illegal construction and probably did not even consider that, God forbid, in the event of a fire, this store would turn into a murderous barricade, insurmountable for both residents and firefighters.
"Judge Ligoraq thus joins Prosecutor Gjeli, Judges Balliu and Demiri, in the file that the Ministry of Justice will forward to the bodies of control and self-government of the judiciary," Rama wrote.
Through these attacks on justice officials, Rama is trying to find the culprit for the spate of illegal constructions and at the same time justify the action to free up space, as if Albania was built overnight and the prime minister and the institutions knew nothing.
Beyond the abnormal behavior of a head of government, the silence of the institutions KLP and the High Judicial Council, which have the duty to protect judges and prosecutors who are silent and do not react, is scandalous. Their reaction should be a clear and firm stance that justice institutions must act independently. They reacted urgently when Irena Gjoka, the Special Judge who was reviewing the Berisha file under security measures, was accused. But they are silent today. Someone should tell the heads of these institutions that their vacations are over and that they should return to duty with dignity, otherwise they are just some hired hands caught in the service of politics.
