Albanian prosecutors have kept forer Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj in custody for eighteen months without a criminal conviction. This ongoing detention by the SPAK agency has ignited a fierce debate regarding the use of legal systems to target political figures.
A judicial backlog of 200,000 pending cases
The Albanian justice system is currently facing a massive administrative crisis, with pending cases surging from 16,000 to an estimated 200,000. As the report states, this backlog means that citizens may have to wait up to fifteen years to receive a final judgment. This delay creates a systemic bottleneck that affects every level of the country's legal proceedings.
Furthermore, more than half of the prison population in Albania is currently awaiting trial, a statistic that places the country among the highest in Europe for pretrial detention. this high rate of incarceration without a verdict raises significant concerns regarding the efficiency and fairness of the nation's judicial processes.
The US-backed SPAK agency faces a legitimacy crisis
The Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) was established in 2016 with significant assistance from the United States and European partners. The agency was originally intended to curb corruption, restore public trust, and accelerate Albania's path toward European Union membership. By creating a robust mechanism to fight organized crime, Western partners hoped to stabilize the region's legal environment.
However, as the report notes, the continued detention of Erion Veliaj has cast doubt on the agency's motives. Critics argue that the agency is engaging in "lawfare"—a term used to describe the use of legal systems to suppress political opponents. if the agency is perceived as a political tool rather than an impartial investigator, it risks undermining the very rule of law it was designed to protect.
Two rulings from the Constitutional Court
Albania's Constitutional Court has issued two separate rulings regarding the detention of Erion Veliaj. In these decisions,the court recognized his elected mandate and instructed a reassessment of whether his continued detention was legally justified. These judicial interventions highlight a persistent tension between the executive's pursuit of corruption and the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence.
The Council of Europe's Venice Commission has previously warned that jailing elected officials before a trial can undermine political pluralism and deprive voters of their chosen representatives. According to the source, the repeated court decisions signal that the legal system is, at times,still willing to attempt to correct itself when the rights of political figures are infringed upon.
From Netanyahu to Veliaj: The global rise of political lawfare
The legal challenges facing Erion Veliaj echo similar political struggles in other nations, including investigations into Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel,Javier Milei in Argentina, and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. While the specific circumstances in each country differ, the pattern of using criminal prosecution as a tool of political contest is a growing concern for democratic stability worldwide.
For Albania, this legal uncertainty does more than just affect the political landscape;it creates economic instability that can deter foreign investment and hamper business activity in the Balkans. A critical question remains regarding whether the SPAK agency will eventually present a criminal verdict or if the detention of the former Tirana mayor will continue indefinitely without a judicial determination. Furthermore, observers are questioning whether the economic uncertainty caused by these legal battles will ultimately derail Albania's progress toward the European Union.
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