Detention as a concern for Sadushi/ Justice has not lacked standards

2026-04-09 10:48:00, Aktualitet CNA

Pre-trial detention as an extraordinary measure, concrete risk analysis, proportionality — these are not innovations. They have been part of the Criminal Procedure Code since the beginning and a direct reflection of the standards of the European Court of Human Rights. However, today they are being treated as if Albanian justice has just entered a new era of legal awareness.

This raises an unavoidable question: why now?

For when a system feels the need to so solemnly reaffirm what it has always known, it is usually not discovering a new truth — but reacting to a concrete circumstance. And when that circumstance coincides with high-profile public and political issues, doubt is no longer merely speculative but inescapable in public perception.

Of course, no one would openly say that such a change in practice is intended to affect a particular issue. But justice is not measured only by what one says, but also by the moment when one chooses to say it. And the timing, in this case, is as significant as the content.

Sadducee Movement/Prejudiced Decision of the United Colleges
April 9, 10:45

The problem has never been the lack of a standard. No one has prevented the courts from requiring concrete evidence of risk, from avoiding stereotypical formulas, or from analyzing proportionality. The problem has been elsewhere: in the way judicial discretion has been exercised and in the lack of strong control over that discretion. This is a problem that is not solved by a new unifying decision, but by a change in judicial culture — something that is not announced, but built over time.

In this context, the real risk of this initiative is not legal, but institutional.

Because it can be read as an attempt to “universalize” a need that actually arises from a specific case. And when justice is perceived as reactive to cases rather than as consistent in principles, public trust is not strengthened — it is weakened.

In the end, a simple but essential dilemma remains: if the standard has always been there, why did it take such a moment to recall it? And most importantly — are we dealing with a real improvement of the system, or simply a reformulation of it to adapt to a context that requires immediate response?

Because justice is not measured by the ability to say the right things, but by the ability to enforce them consistently — even when there is no reason to say them out loud./ CNA