4 days before five Courts of Appeal are to be closed, and gathered in a single one in Tirana, most of the cases have been submitted to what will be the only Court of Appeal in the country.
Of the 21,000 pending appeals in Tirana, another 11,000 from the districts are added to the stock, bringing the number of pending cases to 32,000. This underground facility here at the Court of Appeals which assumes the powers of general jurisdiction will be used as a storage place for files to be raffled off.
"The environment where you were, belongs to the cases that should be thrown into the lottery because there is no trial date. Here where I am is the office of a district judge who has been brought files from the city where he was and for which he has set a trial date. I inform the citizens that the files for which there is a trial date will not be drawn. There will be a draw for those that do not have a date and for those where the troops are delegated", said chancellor Lertida Balili.
However, it is expected that the first problems will be seen during the drawing of lots for large files for which there is still no trial, such as the one of political importance for the trial for the Democratic Party and the leadership or even trials such as that of Endri Dokles.
The second difficulty is expected to be the lack of sufficient premises for courtrooms and offices for 25 judges out of 78 who should be on duty. And the third, the waiting place for citizens who will come from Appeals that closes on January 31.
However, for security, the Appeal has decided to systematize the entrance for the detainees and convicts who will descend through this staircase and from 30 to 50 per day will be moved to this hall until the judicial troops descend. The merger of the Courts of Appeal was carried out according to the new judicial map, which aims to standardize the judicial service, but which will hardly solve the delivery of justice in time./Tch