Administrative Court Declines to Hear Lawsuit Against Prosecutor Who Investigated Him, Veliaj Appeals Decision: The Case Goes Beyond My Personal Interest

Tirana Municipality and Mayor Erion Veliaj have appealed to the Administrative Court of Appeal against the July 24 decision of the Court of First Instance, which declined to examine the merits of the lawsuit against prosecutor Ols Dado.

In a press release, Veliaj said the court did not answer the question of whether a person may exercise the state’s prosecutorial powers when it is alleged that he was appointed in violation of the mandatory criteria set out by law.

Veliaj claims that the court dismissed the case for lack of legal standing, without determining whether the appointment act was absolutely invalid.

PRESS RELEASE

Erion Veliaj and Tirana Municipality have appealed the decision of the Tirana Administrative Court of First Instance, which declined to examine the merits of a lawsuit seeking a declaration that the decree appointing Ols Dado as a prosecutor was absolutely invalid.

The essence of the case is simple: can a person exercise the state’s prosecutorial powers when it is alleged that he was appointed in violation of the mandatory criteria set out by law? This is precisely the question the Court did not answer. It dismissed the case for lack of legal standing, without examining the fact that, at the time of his appointment in 2008, Ols Dado had not graduated from the School of Magistrates and, according to the lawsuit, did not meet any of the statutory exemption criteria that would have allowed his appointment as a prosecutor.

The matter is even more serious because absolute invalidity is being alleged—the most serious form of unlawfulness affecting an administrative act. The law provides that it may be established at any time, even by the court on its own initiative. Nevertheless, the Court dismissed the proceedings for lack of legal standing, without examining the very issue that the law allows and requires it to establish even on its own initiative: whether the act that granted Ols Dado the status of prosecutor is absolutely invalid. Thus, faced with the allegation that the state’s prosecutorial powers may have been exercised for years on the basis of a legally invalid act, the Court chose not to examine the allegation at all.

This case goes beyond Erion Veliaj’s individual interest. It raises a fundamental question about the rule of law: is everyone equal before the law, or are prosecutors and judges exempt from judicial review of the legality of the authority under which they exercise their powers?

The Mayor, democratically elected by around 160,000 citizens of Tirana, has been subjected to the state’s prosecutorial powers, has been held in pretrial detention for 18 months without a court ruling finding him guilty, and is standing trial over the allegations raised against him. Why, then, should the prosecutor who exercised these powers remain beyond judicial scrutiny over an elementary question: did he lawfully obtain the status and authority to act as a prosecutor? If the person elected by the citizens must submit to the law and the courts, why does the appointed prosecutor refuse to be held to the same standard regarding the legality of the powers he exercises?

Equality before the law cannot apply only to the accused. The authority that investigates and prosecutes must also prove that its powers derive from the law.

This is precisely what we asked of the Administrative Court of First Instance, and this is precisely what we are now asking of the Administrative Court of Appeal: no immunity for the Mayor, but also no immunity for the prosecutor from judicial review.

News update in progress…