The Supreme Court partially accepts the request of the ILD for disciplinary measures against the judge of Durrës

2026-02-05 17:53:00, Aktualitet CNA

The Supreme Court partially accepts the request of the ILD for disciplinary

The High Judicial Council has partially accepted the request of the High Inspector of Justice for disciplinary measures against magistrate Shkëlzen Liçaj, who serves as a judge at the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction in Durrës, for repeated delays in the disclosure of judicial decisions.

The ILD's proposal to impose the disciplinary measure "Temporary salary reduction of up to 40 percent, for a period not exceeding one year", was partially accepted, acknowledging the disciplinary violation and imposing the disciplinary measure "Public reprimand" on the judge.

"The disciplinary investigation against Sh.L., judge at the Court of First Instance, General Jurisdiction of Saranda, was initiated based on 12 complaints for delays in disclosing the reasoned decisions by the judge, disciplinary violations provided for by article 102, point 1, letter "d" of Law No. 96/2016 "On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania", as amended.

The voluminous investigation report of the ILD inspectors, with two joint proceedings and an additional subject of investigation for the judge, identified repeated delays in the disclosure of decisions exceeding the legal deadline of up to 4 years, decisions belonging to the period of 2021, 2022, 2023. The ILD inspectors' report concluded that actions/inactions were taken by the magistrate in violation of the civil and criminal procedural deadlines for the reasoning of the judicial decision, exceeding the deadlines beyond any logic, where the failure to comply with the legal deadlines does not appear as an isolated episode, but as a repeated pattern in three consecutive years and in proportions outside any legal and professional standard of delay deadlines. The systematic and repeated delay beyond these deadlines constitutes a clear indicator of non-compliance with functional responsibilities.

Despite the magistrate's submissions regarding the workload and the state of the judicial system, the analysis of the situation showed that he has not fully and consistently fulfilled the legal and functional obligations imposed on him for the reasoning and timely delivery of judicial decisions.

The investigative report notes that the judge's disciplinary violation has resulted in failure to timely obtain the expected product from the trial of a particular case, delays in exercising the right to appeal or even significant delays in the execution of the judicial decision, as a result of the failure to provide timely justification for the decisions, i.e., a denial of justice.

Taking into account the limited 5 years of experience in the system, the High Inspector of Justice concluded that the actions/inactions undertaken by magistrate Sh.L. constitute a “Serious disciplinary violation” and proposed to the High Judicial Council the imposition of the disciplinary measure “Temporary salary reduction of up to 40 percent, for a period not longer than one year”, provided for by article 105, point 1, letter “c”, section “i” and article 108 of law no. 96/2016 “On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania”, as amended. The High Council of Justice recognized the disciplinary violation and imposed the measure “Public reprimand” against judge Sh. L.,” the announcement states./ CNA