“Remand in custody” in focus, the Criminal Code changes, Karanxha: Pre-trial detention has been overused in Albania

In the studio of the ‘Repolitix’ program with journalist Denis Minga on Report Tv, the draft amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure were discussed, with essential changes relating to pre-trial detention and the rights of the person under investigation in the face of error or abuse by the state.

Former prosecutor Ervin Karanxha described these changes as a positive development, since according to him, the security measure of ‘remand in custody’ has been overused in Albania.

Karanxha stressed that Albania has become a subject of discussion at the Council of Europe and many other international bodies, including the Strasbourg Court, regarding the issue of the excessive use of pre-trial detention.

According to former prosecutor Karanxha, with the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the role of the lawyer is strengthened in relation to that of prosecutors.
“We see a positive development, because as we have often discussed, in principle it is said that the security measure of ‘remand in custody’ in Albania has been overused. Albania has become a subject of discussion at the Council of Europe and many other bodies, including also the Strasbourg Court. Now a change is being made and we call it positive in principle. There are also things that need to be looked at. Something positive is that lawyers too can carry out investigations. With today’s code you cannot do actions. You make a request to the proceeding body and in 99% of cases it is a refusal of the request. With the latest amendments, for example in the Agasi case, they can present other witnesses. So the lawyer presents evidence,” former prosecutor Karanxha said, among other things.

On the other hand, lawyer Përparim Caca also, during his remarks, described the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure as positive, despite stressing that a completely new code would have been better than amendments to part of it.
Caca added that the amendments to the Code deal a blow to the abusive culture of the way a criminal proceeding is carried out. He also showed some of the key changes, which favor the rights of the defendant in relation to the investigating bodies.
“With the amendments to the code of procedure, the Prosecution, the investigators, the judicial police officers, will have to run a little. In all aspects, even in the procedural aspect. Because those amendments, I would have been for a new code of criminal procedure, not with these patch-ups. As far as this fact is concerned, I think these amendments deal a blow to an abusive culture of the way a criminal proceeding was carried out. We have seen many cases where there are defendants who declare in the courtroom that they gave a testimony in conditions really of pressure. Not anymore. It will be audio-visual. It is a very important procedural moment. This is a positive novelty. Why do I say it puts an end to an abusive practice? Because always the person who is detained is left in a room in all the police stations of the country. In that room, the body, which in the concrete case is the Police, has the right to carry out an environmental wiretap. If they held conversations with each other, in complete unawareness, if something compromising came out of these conversations, the prosecutor was notified and it was made as if permission for the wiretap had been obtained earlier. Now you have to get permission in Court for the wiretap,” Caca said, among other things.