The three proposals of the Albanian government for judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, Sokol Berberi, Aurela Anastasi, and Aleksandër Muskaj, have passed the first evaluation.
The dossier of the three candidates have been positively evaluated by an expert panel of the ECtHR.
In April 6, Berberi, Anastasi, and Muskaj will be interviewed by 22 deputies of the member states of the Council of Europe (CoE). Afterward, on April 25, the parliamentary assembly of the CoE with 324 deputies will vote for one of the three candidates as the new Albanian judge who will replace Ledi Bianku.
The mandate of an ECtHR judge is 9 years.
The three Albanian candidates where selected in December 2016, after a first list drafted by the Rama government was refused. That list contained Genti Ibrahimi, Sokol Berberi, and Ina Rama.
The candidates
Sokol Berberi is the only candidate reproposed by the government, and was member of the Constitutional Court until October 2016. Berberi resigned after the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the vetting law. He has denied that his resignation was connected to the verdict.
Prof. Dr. Aurela Anastasi is known as an expert in constitutional law. For more than 20 years she has been teaching at the Law Faculty of the University of Tirana. Anastasi has been part of the group of experts engaged in the first phase of the drafting of the judicial reform.
Aleksandër Muskaj has been member of the High Court since 2008. Before he has been judge in the Regional Court of Vlora and in the Appeals Court in Tirana. Muskaj has been member of the High Judicial Council from 2002 to 2007.
