TIRANA, January 26 /ATA/ Minister of Justice Besfor Lamallari participated today in the event marking opening of the courts for the current year.
During his speech, he emphasized the gap between citizens’ expectations after the Justice Reform and the current functioning of the system, especially in terms of accountability and discipline of magistrates.
Lamallari emphasized that independence and accountability are “two sides of the same coin” and that public trust cannot be built without a real balance between them.
The minister’s criticism focused on the High Inspector of Justice, which he stated is not properly fulfilling its constitutional mission to guarantee high professional and disciplinary standards in the system.
The minister provided concrete data. During the years 2023–2025, there were registered 1,374 complaints with the High Inspector of Justice, but were taken only 23 decisions to open a disciplinary investigation.
This means that less than 2% of citizens’ complaints pass the initial filter for a disciplinary investigation.
Lamallari warned that the lack of reflection and real action by the relevant institutions for the discipline risks turning the independence of justice into a formal concept, disconnected from responsibility to citizens.
Regarding court backlog, i.e. the high volume of unresolved cases, the Minister of Justice singled out the situation in the courts of appeal of general jurisdiction as particularly problematic.
He also spoke about the alarming rate of unsentenced prisoners in pre-trial detention. /k.s/j.p/p.s./
