High Prosecutorial Council has rejected in today’s meeting the proposal of the High Inspector of Justice for the disciplinary proceeding of prosecutor E.K., with the measure “Public Reprimand”, for the violation provided for in Article 102, point 1, letter “dh”, of Law No. 96/2016, “On status”, as amended.
The disciplinary investigation against prosecutor E.K. was initiated by the HIJ on its own initiative, based on information made public in the media, as well as following the complaint of the Albanian Helsinki Committee and 18 civil society organizations. On 21.02.2020 the media informed about the suicide within the premises of Prison No. 313 of the citizen B.H., a father of 4 children. This citizen had been under the security measure of “arrest in prison” for several months for the criminal offense of “theft” of an amount of 1200 ALL, had mental health problems, and was awaiting the scheduling of the preliminary hearing.
The disciplinary investigation of the HIJ concluded that prosecutor E.K. committed a disciplinary violation of professional inaction, as, despite being made aware of the severe mental state of B.H., she did not undertake further actions to verify his condition and criminal responsibility. The violation was assessed as committed out of negligence and not intentionally, also considering the high workload, but also the long professional experience of the prosecutor. According to the HIJ, the inaction prevented the verification of B.H.’s mental state and the taking of appropriate measures, but it does not result to have caused his death. The prosecutor’s violation is assessed to have damaged the image of justice and public trust, as the case received significant attention in the print and visual media.
Taking into consideration that the violation was committed out of negligence, for the first time, and also taking in consideration the high workload, High Inspector of Justice evaluates the violation as minor and proposed to the High Prosecutorial Council the imposition of the disciplinary measure “Public reprimand”, against prosecutor E.K., provided by Article 105 paragraph 1 letter a and Article 107 of Law No. 96.2016 “On Status”, for the disciplinary violation provided for by Article 102, point 1, letters “dh”, of Law No. 96/2016 “On status”, as amended. This proposal was rejected by the High Prosecutorial Council.
