The High Judicial CTouncil (KLD) has suspended chief judge Enkeleda Kapedani of Elbasan until it is clarified whether she published herself unprofessional videos on TikTok.
KLD has asked the High Justice Inspector (ILD) to appoint an IT expert to verify the source of the videos in question. Kapedani claims that the videos were stolen from her phone and posted to TikTok by a third party.
In the videos, made public in early June, the judge can be seen posing in her office and the corridors of the courthouse in designer clothing or driving at high speed in an expensive car while breaking traffic regulations.
KLD has further requested that a technology expert verify the data on the time and manner the videos were made and published, and by whom. It has also asked that the security cameras of the Elbasan Judicial District Court be checked against the videos to provide information on when they were filmed.
The High Judicial Council has instructed ILD to also document the song lyrics that accompany the videos in the background, given their content that supposedly glorifies criminal activity, and reassesses the judge’s professionalism and work.
Since the videos were made public, Kapedani’s case has raised questions not only about the judge’s fitness for office, but about the larger workings of the judicial system in Albania, and the credibility of the ongoing judicial reform.
