New Kosova Report

Albania: New Prosecutor Appointed

Friday, 23 November 2007

Tirana _ Albania's parliament voted on Thursday to elect a top judge from the Serious Crimes Court as the country’s new prosecutor-general.

Ina Rama, aged 35, became the first woman in Albania's history to hold such a high-ranking post in the prosecution service. Sources close to President Bamir Topi told Balkan Insight that Rama's candidacy was widely backed by the international community which has been closely monitoring the reforms in Albania's judiciary system.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha commended the new prosecutor before the vote as an independent figure from within the ranks of the judiciary.

"She is a person who enjoys the trust of the entire parliamentary spectrum," said Berisha in parliament.

The decision in parliament, with 83 votes in favour and 33 against, came after earlier in the day President Topi dismissed from office Prosecutor-General Theodhori Sollaku, following a call for his sacking by a parliamentary commission.

The sacked prosecutor-general had been accused of failing to take on organised crime.

Sollaku has contested his removal as unconstitutional, arguing that his dismissal was the outcome of political manoeuvres.

"My dismissal is a result of the political games that elected the president," Sollaku said at a news conference.

The centre-right coalition, led by Berisha, first established a parliamentary investigative commission last year to try to remove Sollaku, but former President Alfred Moisiu refused to join forces with the government, insisting that the commission had not gathered sufficient evidence to justify the prosecutor-general's dismissal.

Topi was Berisha’s deputy in the leadership of the governing Democratic Party before he was elected president in July.