(ANSA) - STRASBOURG, 10 FEB - According to the European Court
of Human Rights, Albania's procedure adopted in 2016 to assess
whether all the country's magistrates have adequate "ethics and
professional skills" is a necessary and proportionate solution
to combat corruption. In the ruling on the appeal filed by a
judge of the Constitutional Court fired following the assessment
mentioned above, the Strasbourg judges established that the
procedure "was fair and the dismissal was proportional". The
former judge had accused, among other things, the bodies in
charge of the assessment of not being "independent and
impartial" and asserted that the lifetime ban on returning to
the judiciary was disproportionate. But for the Strasbourg
Court, the entire procedure respects the standards of a fair and
impartial trial, and there is no evidence of pressure from the
executive on the evaluation bodies. Furthermore, the Court said
that the judge was able to present evidence in her defense and
that this was insufficient to explain where the money used to
buy an apartment came from. According to the Court, the latter
point made the expulsion for life from the judiciary right "for
serious violations of ethics", since the goal was to "eliminate
the corrupt ones from the justice system." (ANSA).
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