The Appeals Court's decision is revealed: Veliaj, risk of evidence poisoning

2025-04-08 17:52:00, Aktualitet CNA

The Appeals Court's decision is revealed: Veliaj, risk of evidence

The Court of Appeal's decision and the reasoning for refusing to release Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj are revealed.

Journalist Klodiana Lala has secured the decision of the Special Appeal where, according to the court's reasoning, Veliaj has the power to influence his subordinates to destroy or distort the content of various documents that could serve as sources of evidence, as well as to influence various persons, subordinates or not, not to provide valuable statements before the proceeding body or to distort the content of these statements.

“At the conclusion of the analysis related to the type of security measure that was imposed on the person under investigation Erion Veliaj, the Court of Appeal considers the decision of the Court of First Instance to be fully justified and grounded and assesses that any other measure other than “Arrest in prison”, provided for by Article 238 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is not in accordance with the level of security needs, for all the arguments given above, due to the particular dangerousness of the criminal offenses and their suspected perpetrator as well as the presence of the three special conditions for the imposition of a security measure, at their highest level. The Court considers the security measure “Property guarantee”, provided for in Article 236 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, requested by the person under investigation Erion Veliaj, to be completely inappropriate. Such a measure not only, as was emphasized, does not satisfy the level of security needs, but at the same time does not comply with the nature of the offenses that is suspected of having committed this person under investigation, which are precisely related to the irregular benefit during the exercise of duty of monetary amounts and other assets as well as the concealment of the source of these benefits. Therefore, the establishment of a sum of money as a guarantee for the freedom of a high-ranking official is considered completely contrary to the nature of criminal offenses that aim precisely to protect the legal relationships established to prevent the officials in question from receiving irregular benefits and the subsequent concealment of the origin of these benefits.

On the other hand, the Court requires that while being a high-ranking official may increase the weight of arguments in favor of detention, even in these cases the standards of the Convention must be respected; liberty may only be restricted when the reasons are convincing, specific and supported by evidence.

The risk of evidence poisoning in this specific case is also reinforced by the fact that the person under investigation, Erion Veliaj, is still in office as Mayor of Tirana and has the power to influence his subordinates to destroy or distort the content of various documents that could serve as sources of evidence, as well as to influence various persons, subordinates or not, not to provide valuable statements before the proceeding body or to distort the content of these statements, as also resulted from the above submission," the decision states.

The judge in his decision states that regarding the risk of flight, as the first instance court rightly reasoned, the financial capabilities of the person under investigation Erion Veliaj, assessed in harmony with his numerous movements abroad, referring to the data of the TIMS system, and reinforced by the extremely high sanction of the criminal offenses that this citizen is suspected of having committed and that he risks suffering, leads the court to the conclusion that this risk is eminent and at high levels.

"The court considers that such a risk of damage to evidence is not a situation that can be neutralized through the temporary isolation of the person under investigation, as long as the circle of evidence that will serve to shed light on the criminal fact is not yet completely clear, and the risk of poisoning of live evidence will always be present with reference to the behavior shown by the person under investigation, as set out above.

As stated above, the risk of evidence poisoning alone would be sufficient for the court to impose the security measure "Arrest in prison", as provided for in Article 238 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, on the person under investigation Erion Veliaj. However, the court notes that in this case there is also a risk of flight and of committing other criminal offenses of the same type as those for which proceedings are being conducted.

Regarding the risk of flight, as the court of first instance rightly reasoned, the financial capabilities of the person under investigation Erion Veliaj, assessed in harmony with his numerous movements abroad, referring to the data of the TIMS system and reinforced by the extremely high sanction of the criminal offenses that this citizen is suspected of having committed and that he risks suffering, leads the court to the conclusion that this risk is eminent and at high levels. This conclusion is not relativized even by the fact that the person under investigation is the head of the family and the father of a minor child", states, among other things, the decision of the Special Appeal.

The Appeals Court's decision is revealed: Veliaj, risk of evidence