Supreme Court keeps Veliaj in jail, foreign lawyers: Kafkaesque decision! A test of whether constitutional review has any power…

After the Supreme Court’s decision to keep Tirana’s mayor in detention, despite the earlier Constitutional Court ruling, the international lawyers of Erion Veliaj have also reacted.

In a statement distributed by the American law firm Kasowitz, it is stressed that the Supreme Court’s decision tests whether constitutional review has practical power.

“The decision of Albania’s Supreme Court is Kafkaesque and raises a strong question: does constitutional review have any meaning in Albania, if the constitutional flaws identified by the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, are not corrected by the lower courts?” the reaction states.

Kasowitz stresses that Veliaj has already spent more than 19 months in detention, without any trial or conviction, and that constitutional rights cannot exist only on paper, while constitutional review cannot become an exercise without practical consequences.

Full statement:

Albania’s Supreme Court keeps Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj in detention, after the Constitutional Court annulled the Supreme Court’s previous decision

Albania’s Supreme Court decided on September 15 that Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj will remain in detention, upholding the March 13, 2025 decision of the Special Court of Appeals. The decision follows a ruling by Albania’s Constitutional Court, which annulled the Supreme Court’s previous decision on Mayor Veliaj’s detention and returned the case for reconsideration.

The Constitutional Court found that the Supreme Court’s previous decision had not carried out the review required by the Constitution on important issues related to the continuation of Mayor Veliaj’s detention, including its proportionality and the constitutional consequences of preventing the democratically elected mayor of Tirana from exercising the mandate entrusted by the city’s voters. The Constitutional Court returned the case to the Supreme Court for further review.

Mayor Veliaj has been in detention since February 10, 2025 — more than 19 months — and continues to be the elected mayor of Tirana. In a separate decision last year, the Constitutional Court declared invalid an attempt to remove him from office due to his involuntary absence while in detention.

Daniel J. Fetterman, partner at Kasowitz LLP and Mayor Veliaj’s lead international counsel, stated:

“Albania’s Supreme Court decision is Kafkaesque and raises a strong question: does constitutional review have any meaning in Albania, if the constitutional flaws identified by the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, are not corrected by the lower courts?”

“Albania’s Constitutional Court annulled the Supreme Court’s previous decision and returned this case for review, because the substantive review required by the Constitution had not been carried out regarding the proportionality of Mayor Veliaj’s detention, less restrictive measures, and the consequences of preventing the elected mayor of Tirana from exercising the mandate given by the citizens of Tirana.”

“Mayor Veliaj has already spent more than 19 months in detention, without any trial or conviction. Constitutional rights cannot exist only on paper, and constitutional review cannot become an exercise without practical consequences. The rule of law does not depend simply on the issuance of decisions by constitutional courts, but also on the meaningful implementation of these decisions.”

“Therefore, this case raises a much broader institutional question: whether the justice system in Albania respects the rule of law when constitutional protections demand a different direction, and whether Constitutional Court decisions have any practical meaning.”

“Albania’s institutions still have the opportunity to demonstrate that constitutional guarantees are enforceable and not merely aspirations. We will continue to pursue every legal avenue available to Mayor Veliaj and insist on a process consistent with these principles.”

The Supreme Court’s public notice, dated September 15, announces that the Court upheld the March 13, 2025 decision of the Special Court of Appeals. The notice does not yet contain the Court’s full written reasoning and stresses that the reasoned decision will be communicated to the parties in accordance with the Court’s procedures.

Issues related to Mayor Veliaj’s detention arise in a broader procedural context. Kasowitz previously reported that publicly disclosed court-ordered information showed SPAK’s investigation appeared to have started from anonymous reports attributed to “Nesti Agoni” and “Nasta Pëllumbi”, neither of whom appeared in Albania’s National Civil Registry. Mayor Veliaj has also filed a separate challenge regarding whether chief prosecutor Ols Dado met the legal requirements governing his appointment. These issues are separate from the Supreme Court’s September 15 decision on detention.