KPA dismisses prosecutor Erjon Shehaj from duty

The Special Appeals Chamber, KPA, announced on Wednesday, April 9, the decision to dismiss the head of the Lezha Prosecution Office, Erjon Shehaj, whose confirmation by the Independent Qualification Commission was appealed by the institution of Public Commissioners for problems in the professional criteria.

The presiding judge, Sokol Çomo, announced at the beginning of the hearing to announce the verdict that Shehaj had filed a request to reopen the investigation on April 8, attaching an Appeals decision. Çomo pointed out that the trial panel had been in deliberations since April 4, and that under these conditions, it was legally unable to review this request.

The head of SPAK, Altin Dumani, who has taken over the powers of the former commissioners, stood by the grounds of appeal. During his final submissions and conclusions, he listed the findings, positions and research on all issues addressed in the appeal, assessing that the subject has not been convincing in his explanations, and consequently has not managed to challenge the burden of proof. Dumani requested that all findings on the issues examined be considered in the overall assessment, in terms of violating the public's trust in justice.

The appeal addressed several issues, for which it was evidenced that the subject had not registered a proceeding for a part of the criminal offenses referred by the police and further concluded with the termination of the investigations. A person investigated by Prosecutor Shehaj for the criminal offenses “Production and sale of narcotics” and “Illegal possession and production of explosive weapons and ammunition”, resulted in being caught with about 3 kg of hashish and explosives modified for the purpose of enabling remote explosion via mobile phones. The subject sent the case for trial, requesting 5 years in prison for each criminal offense and, in conjunction with the sentences, ultimately 5 years of imprisonment, which in the application of the summary trial was reduced to 3 years and 4 months due to the reduction of 1/3 of the sentence. Shehaj also requested the suspension of the sentence and placement on probation. In another case that was submitted to judicial review at the College, allegations were raised that the subject had investigated under conditions of conflict of interest, as his name was mentioned in the letter containing threats against Shehaj and other magistrates.

For two cases transferred by the KPK for further verification to the High Inspector of Justice, ILD, it was found that the legal deadlines for the violations had been exceeded.

At the end of the process, Dumani found that the subject did not carry out the necessary investigative actions and that there was a lack of legal reasoning. He requested that the identified shortcomings be considered in the overall assessment in terms of undermining public trust in justice and requested the dismissal of prosecutor Erjon Shehaj.

The subject defended himself by claiming that he had acted in accordance with the law. He also claimed that the head of SPAK presented conclusions outside the grounds of the complaint and that a comprehensive assessment cannot be carried out on one criterion. According to the subject, the findings established cannot violate the indicators of the professional aspect and even less be assessed for violating public trust in justice.

Chairman Çomo concluded that the Panel found the claim in the appeal to be correct, that the two cases transferred by the Commission to the ILD were in excess of the legal deadline with regard to the alleged violation committed by the subject. Consequently, they were treated in the preliminary assessment.

Regarding the problems identified in the complaint, the College found the lack of justification in cases of non-registration of some of the criminal offenses referred by the police to be justified. It also found a lack of investigation and justification, which the College considers to be a deficiency in legal knowledge.

The finding that the subject should have given up investigating the case for threatening the judge was also found to be correct, when the threatening letter also mentioned his name, a fact that, according to the KPA, was also evidenced by Shehaj himself in the acts for transferring the case for competence to another prosecutor's office.

Although the problems identified were not found to be penalizing in isolation, the College assesses that due to the weight of the failure to take action and the lack of justifications in some of the cases reviewed, they have been addressed in the overall assessment. According to the College, the deficiencies are such that they cannot be corrected through the mandatory 1-year training at the School of Magistrates and in their overall assessment lead to the conclusion that the subject is in conditions of violation of public trust in justice.

Based on these arguments, the College decided to reverse the Commission's decision regarding prosecutor Erjon Shehaj and dismissed him from office. Reporter.al