Judges’ Salaries / Lawyer: The debate should be about separation of powers, not numbers

Lawyer Rezart Kthupi, in an interview on “News Room” on ABC News, spoke about the issue of judges’ salaries that has also brought recent debates with Prime Minister Edi Rama.

During the interview, Kthupi said that the main debate should be about the separation of powers and not about the numerical value of the salary.

He also added that judges cannot decide to raise their own salaries. He added that, although salaries should be reviewed, the discussion should not be reduced to figures or take place in a climate of confrontation.

Kthupi thus emphasized the need for the debate on justice to focus on the functioning and independence of institutions, instead of concentrating only on the level of judges’ salaries.

“The debate should be about the separation of powers, because the issue is not in the numerical value of the salary. But where does the prime minister’s right to set courts’ salaries on social media begin? The prime minister promotes on social media that he is the originator and biggest supporter of justice. But it must be said that it is terribly abusive to drop to the level of figures — absolutely they should be looked at, but not in this context of a hammer justice. Today there are hundreds of other problems in this system that we claim to improve,” he said.