1600 complaints about Albanian Corrupt Judges and Prosecutors, but no one dares to review them

 100 days after its creation, the High Inspectorate of Justice is in a stalemate. 1600 complaints files by citizens about corrupt judges and prosecutors are waiting to be reviewed, but there is no one to undertake this important step for the future of Albania. The High Inspector of Justice (HIJ) has been left alone in this great battle. In an interview to the 'Unpublished show in Euronews Albania, Artur Metani who is the head of the HIJ shows that no one agrees to take the position of inspector. So far he has only one subordinate and a single office, where all the work of this important institution of justice must take place.

Metani tells Euronews Albania that the difficulties are not just logistical. The competition that has been opened to fill the body of inspectors is failing due to lack of applications from judges and prosecutors coming from the ranks of the system. Meanwhile, there are some requests from free lawyers, but also few ones. The main reason is the fact that any applicant for inspector, will pass with priority to the Vetting site, before taking office. And that doesn't seem to suit many judges and prosecutors.

Artur Metani while being interviewed at 'Unpublished' show at Euronews Albania 

The High Inspectorate of Justice should have 18 inspectors, of which 6 will be elected from the ranks of freelance lawyers and 12 should come from the ranks of magistrates. None of the latter has entered the race.

But what is the reason that judges and prosecutors do not want to investigate cases of violation of the law by the corrupt? This disinterest would make sense if these posts did not carry benefits. Let's see what an inspector benefits. The salary of an inspector is about 300 thousand new lek per month (about 2300 euros), so about 2 times higher than what a Judge of First Instance Court can get. So the economic benefit is great.

Let's look at career benefits. If a lawyer takes on the role of inspector, he or she will climb the career ladder for 5 years by going to the appellate courts, a time which, if not an inspector, takes at least 10 years of experience. So career benefits are also high. But again the interest for these posts is zero!

To take on the role of inspector in HIJ, you must first go through all the filters to check the purity of the image, without any shadow of a doubt about corruption of any kind, and secondly you must consider the risk of investigating your colleagues, which can sometimes to be your closest friends. So to put it bluntly, it seems that so far no one trusts either his own conscience nor has the courage to investigate others..