Today the High Prosecutorial Council (KLP) has approved the regulations to open the public call for a new General Prosecutor. The term of the previous General Prosecutor, Adriatik Llalla, ended in December 2017, after which he was replaced by “Temporary” General Prosecutor Arta Marku, who was approved by the Socialist majority in a procedure that most likely violated the Constitution.
Based on on the Prosecution Law 97/2016, candidates for the office of General Prosecutor must meet the following
a) Successfully pass the full asset and background assessment under the law;
b) Meet the requirements of the law “On ensuring the integrity of the persons elected, appointed or assuming public functions”;
c) Have not been members, collaborators or favoured by the State Security before 1990;
ç) Not to be collaborators, informants or agents of any secret services;
d) Have not been convicted by a final court decision for commission of a criminal offence;
dh) Have not been dismissed from office for disciplinary reasons and have no disciplinary measure in force.
In the recent past, especially point c) has proven problematic, as the law sets no time limit on when the Authority for Information on Documents of the former State Security (AIDSSh) is supposed to provide information to that end from the archives of the former State Security (Sigurimi).
Once the formal criteria are met, the candidates are evaluated and ranked based on the following criteria: Results of professional evaluation of the candidate in the field of criminal justice; Moral and professional integrity of the candidate; Organizational and managerial skills; Evaluation of additional criteria, under Article 27 of this Law. All formally qualifying candidates will also be subjected to a hearing by the KLP.
Once the KLP has completed the ranking, the three highest ranking candidates will be sent to Parliament. From this list, Parliament is supposed to choose one candidate with a 3/5 majority. Should this fail, the first-ranked candidate will be automatically appointed as General Prosecutor, for a single term of 7 years.
