They ask not only money. They receive anything in return for a service, from as little as an unwanted fine, an impounded vehicle, a passing grade, a hospital service, to tendering under an unfair competition, avoiding an investigation or an influenced decision. . But between the two sides that exercise active and passive corruption, in the special court there is an increasing trend of persons exercising illegal influence. From the monitoring of the FOL Center , it results that in the first 6 months of 2023 in the Special Structure Against Organized Crime and Corruption, 12 cases were registered for the criminal offense of "Exercising illegal influence on persons exercising public functions". The wiretapping shows the extent to which the corrupt reach.
For 2022, the anti-corruption court closed nine processes with citizens, against whom SPAK accused of influencing officials. The most recent is a judicial police officer near the prosecutor's office, who was declared wanted for 50,000 lek, which, according to him, a prosecutor would pay for an arrested citizen.
Lirian Taragjini: Hey, did you meet him?
Zenel Taragjin: Yes, I met him, listen now, he wants coffee tomorrow morning, the coffee we talked about at five o'clock.
Lirian Taragjini: That's what everyone tells me, I'll take it out...
Zenel Taragjini: Well, well, he can't get enough. He doesn't get excited, how many wooden cars he wants, they promise him, how many goats and kids and how much cheese he wants... we better forgive him the car...
The interceptions of the Elbasan prosecutor's office show that for a blocked vehicle, which the family was trying to recover, they extorted everything from them. The monitoring of the FOL Center shows that the investigations started on December 7 of last year, when the prosecutor's office of Elbasan registered criminal proceedings number 1558 for the criminal offense "Illegal cutting of forests" against the citizen Zenel Taragjini. He was arrested in flagrante delicto for a bunch of grapes, at the same time he started his odyssey with Albanian justice. Stopped with Mitsubishi vehicle, off-road type with license plate AA 724 XO, filled with a quantity of firewood. The vehicle together with the timber was seized by judicial police officer Çelnik Toska. To recover the vehicle again, father and son Lirian and Zenel Tragjini,
"Under these circumstances, it is suspected that the persons under investigation, Lirian Targjini and Zenel Taragjini, have tried to make possible the return of the off-road type vehicle, Mitsubishi model, with license plate AA 724 XO, which appears in the name of the person in the investigation Zenel Taragjini. The person under investigation Zenel Taragjini contacted the person under investigation Çelik Toska, a judicial police officer at the Gramsh Police Station, and it is suspected that he gave him a quantity of food material in a bag, on 08.12.2022, in exchange for making it possible of returning the seized item. On the other hand, it is suspected that the person under investigation, Lirian Taragjini, gave the amount of 100. 000 (one hundred thousand) new lek to the person under investigation Lulzim Hasa in order for the latter to exert illegal influence on the prosecutor of the case for the return of the seized item. This fact was also made known to the person under investigation, Sefer Shuka, a police officer in the economic crime sector in the Elbasan Police Local Directorate, who then is suspected to have made this fact known to his direct superior., is mentioned in the investigation file provided by the FOL Center.
It turns out that the investigation was transferred to the special prosecutor's office and after a court decision, Lulëzim Hasa and Çelnik Toskë ended up under house arrest. While we are still investigating Liria and Zenel Taragjas as well as the citizen Sefer Shuka. But on June 16, the special appeals judge Engert Pëllumbi, with decision number 21, decided to release Lulzim Hasa from the cell and assign him the measure of house arrest, because he has to take care of his sick father. While he left the measures for the other persons under investigation unchanged.
Although the official data provided by the FOL Center, in the last three years speak of 19 convicted by final decision, including former judges, former prosecutors and former officials, for the lawyer Ibrahim Sako, 'the big fish' ” is not captured through those who exercise illegitimate influence.
"It is unfortunate that law enforcement bodies in most cases fight this type of corruption. And in the face of major corruption with tenders worth hundreds of millions of euros, they close their eyes or in cases where their corruption becomes media and the pressure of public opinion is great, they try to hide it by raising ridiculous accusations".
Only citizens know the power of law
For lawyer Sako, the problem remains the punishability of corruption at high levels. Those who face the brunt of the law are ordinary citizens.
“Ne si avokatë përballemi në prokurori dhe gjykatë duke mbrojtur interesat e klientëve tanë të cilët akuzohen për vepra ordinere dhe e ndiejmë ashpërsinë e këtyre organeve që me forcën e ligjit dënojnë maksimalisht këta qytetarë, ku dëmi i shkaktuar, apo rrezikshmëria janë thuajse të papërfillshme”.
Megjithatë, hetimet e vazhdueshme ekspozuan sërish fenomenin e shoqërisë, në të cilin qytetarët përpiqen përballë ryshfetit të sigurojnë shërbime duke nxjerrë në dritë edhe zyrtarë të nivelit të lartë. Zyrtari më i lartë i vënë në përgjegjësi është ish-zëvendës ministrja Rovena Voda, emri i të cilës lakohej përgjatë përgjimeve të vazhdueshme në një çështje droge, si zyrtarja që do të realizonte një punësim. E veçuar nga hetimi i madh, Voda u shpall fajtore, mbasi gjatë vëzhgimit ambiental u konstatua se ju dhurua një arkë peshk. Monitorimi i Qendrës FOL tregon se Voda u dënua njësoj si edhe qytetarja që ushtroi ndikim të paligjshëm tek ajo.
Sipas Sakos, ndryshe ndodh me zyrtarët, politikanët apo njerëz me influence, që ku para tyre ky sistem mbyll sytë edhe gjithmonë gjen teknikalitete ligjore për ti shmangur nga përgjegjësia ligjore.
"Let's take as an example the release from prison of the former Minister of the Interior Saimir Tahiri, who was released with the motivation that his wife is not in good health to take care of the children and the court accepts it as a mitigating circumstance, but does not accept the request of a citizen who asked the court to replace the measure of arrest with prison in house arrest, because his wife had died 5 months ago and there is no one to take care of his minor children", said Sako to the FOL Center. Regarding the case of the former interior minister, it turns out that neither the High Inspector of Justice (ILD) nor the Special Prosecutor's Office have launched verifications or investigations into the act of forensic expertise, the position of the prosecutor in the case and whether or not there are affairs of the exercise of illegal influence.