The Appeal Chamber held on 04.04.2025, at 09:00, the public hearing of case (JR) 27/2022, dated 17.06.2022, pertaining to the appeal of the Public Commissioner against decision no. 521, dated 01.04.2022 of the Independent Qualification Commission, related to the assessee Erjon Shehaj.

The presiding judge announced that the assessee had submitted with the Chamber several acts, which he was invited during the previous hearing to submit them in the form required by law. These acts were also made available to the Head of the Special Prosecution Office, Mr. Altin Dumani, before the hearing.

The presiding judge also informed that a new public denunciation had been received by the Chamber before the hearing, which had been forwarded to the parties at trial before the hearing. The Head of the Special Prosecution Office had also been forwarded in advance the written position of the assessee regarding this denunciation.

With regard to the acts, Mr. Dumani maintained that they had been lodged in the form required by law, while with respect to the denunciation, he stated that it contains no grounds that would require further investigation. In this context, the legal representative of the assessee reiterated the position that the latter had not addressed issues related to this denunciation, consequently the denunciation failed to meet the legal criteria to be investigated by the Chamber.

The trial panel decided to accept as evidence the acts submitted by the assessee, and not to open an investigation on the denunciation, as it assessed that it failed to include the elements required by Article 53 of Law 84/2016 “On the transitional re-evaluation of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania”.

Once the parties declared that they had no other procedural requests, the trial panel decided to close the judicial investigation of the case and invited them to submit their final conclusions.

During the submission of the final conclusions, the Head of the Special Prosecution office stated that he stands by the appeal grounds and requested that the shortcomings found in the proficiency and ethics criteria of the assessee be taken into consideration in the overall evaluation of the case in accordance with Article 4, paragraph 2 of Law no. 84/2016, in conjunction with Article 61, paragraph 5 thereof. Finally, Mr. Dumani requested the amendment of decision no. 521, dated 1.4.2022, of the Independent Qualification Commission and the dismissal from office of the assessee, Mr. Erjon Shehaj.

The assessee, through his legal representative, maintained the same position on the appeal, claiming that there are no arguments as to how the proficiency assessment indicator and, even more so, the public’s trust in justice could have been violated. According to him, the circumstances identified for the proficiency assessment could be taken into consideration in the overall evaluation of the case for all three evaluation criteria and not in the specific case, when no appeal grounds have been raised against the assessee for the other two criteria, asset and background assessment. Finally, the legal representative of the assessee requested the upholding of decision no. 521, dated

01.04.2022 of the Independent Qualification Commission, as a fair decision, supported on evidence and law.

After hearing the final arguments of the parties, the trial panel withdrew to make the final decision on the case, which it shall announce on 09.04.2025, at 15:00.

The public hearing shall take place at the premises of the Appeal Chamber, at Boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit”, no. 3, Tirana.