The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution has decided to suspend Special Appeal Chamber (KPA) judge Luan Daci. He is accused of falsifying documents to hide his dismissal as judge in 1997.
The KPA is the highest institution that vets Albania’s judges and prosecutors in the ongoing justice reform.
On January 17, High Prosecutorial Council (KLP) member Besnik Cani filed criminal charges against Daci for having hidden his 1997 dismissal on grounds of violating the law and incompetence. On January 20, Cani asked the KPA to dismiss Daci from its body. The Chamber struck down his request without giving any explanation. Cani also turned to the Constitutional Court to review the appointment of Daci, and another vetting judge Ardian Hajdari, whose appointment did not comply with the requirements set out in the Constitution.
This fact was not unknown to judicial institutions, as, in November 2016, only three months before applying to become a member of KPA, Daci had also applied to fill a vacancy in the Tirana District Court. The High Judicial Council (KLD) explicitly stated in its report that Daci’s application was dismissed on the grounds of his previous dismissal.
Following Daci’s suspension, former KLP member Antoneta Sevdari reasserted that the members of KPA had been appointed in contradiction to the requirements set out by the law. Sevdari was dismissed by the KPA in February, 2019, by a judicial body that included Daci. Following her dismissal, she made public documents that proved Daci had not disclosed his 1997 dismissal. She filed complaints with the International Monitoring Operation (ONM), but they were ignored.
Thus, Daci was deemed ineligible to become a district court judge only a few months before becoming part of the vetting body that would monitor the wealth, professionalism, and integrity of the country’s judges and prosecutors.
Daci’s suspension by the Court is an indicator of the way vetting organs have been formed and populated. It also puts in question all the decisions made by judicial bodies that included Daci.
