The Appeal Chamber held on 02.04.2025, at 13:00, the public hearing of case (JR) 41/2024, dated 21.10.2024, pertaining to the appeal of the Public Commissioner against decision no. 762, dated 15.05.2024, of the Independent Qualification Commission, related to the assessee Afrim Shehu.
The presiding judge announced that Article 179/b, paragraph 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania and Article 199 of the Civil Procedure Code have set forth the transfer of powers from the Public Commissioner to the Head of the Special Prosecution Office, represented in this trial upon special authorization by the prosecutor of the Special Prosecution Office, Mr. Klodian Braho, present at the hearing.
The legal representative of the assessee considered Mr. Braho’s authorization to be well-founded and the trial panel legitimized his presence at this hearing.
Mr. Braho stated that he had waived the appeal grounds related to the proficiency assessment criterion and continued with the submission of the appeal grounds related to the asset assessment criterion. He held that the assessee had failed to prove the legitimacy of the source of creation of his assets nor prove the opposite of the burden of proof for this criterion. The representative of the Special Prosecution Office requested the amendment of the IQC decision no. 762, dated 15.05.2024, and the dismissal from office of the assessee Afrim Shehu.
The assessee and his legal representative disputed the appeal grounds and filed documents in support of their claims, which they requested the trial panel to accept them as evidence. With regard to this request, Mr. Klodian Braho maintained that he found no formal impediments to the administration of the documents.
The presiding judge of the trial panel requested the parties to take a position regarding three public complaints, two of which had been forwarded to the Public Commissioners Institution before the submission of the appeal against the decision subject to consideration, and no appeal grounds had been raised in their regard. These complaints were subsequently forwarded to the Chamber by the Public Commissioners Institution. The representative of the Special Prosecution Office stated that none of them contained grounds for further investigation. The assessee provided explanations and submitted new documents regarding the issues raised in the complaints.
After being consulted, the trial panel decided to open the judicial investigation of the case and accept as evidence all the documents filed by the assessee, except for the financial analysis of the years 2009 – 2016, which is already part of the case file.
The trial panel decided not to open an investigation on the public complaints, and once the parties stated that they had no procedural requests, decided to close the judicial investigation and invited them to submit their final conclusions.
Given that the representative of the Special Prosecution Office requested time to prepare the final conclusions, it was decided to postpone the hearing to 22.04.2025, at 11:30.
The public hearing shall take place at the premises of the Appeal Chamber, at Boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit”, no. 3, Tirana.