Albania Presses on With Land Restitution Law

Seven separate lawsuits have been filed with Albania's Constitutional court against a new law that aims to compensate former owners of land confiscated in the communist era, including motions filed by the country's President and Ombusman.

However, the government on Wednesday continued to release supporting legislation for the law, establishing the Agency of Property Treatment, the new body in charge of the 26,000 cases that await compensation.

Sources from the Constitutional Court told BIRN that seven lawsuits had been filed seeking abrogation of the law.

The opposition centre-right Democratic Party and the Republican Party, as well associations of former land owners all object to the new law as insufficient.

Myrshit Vorpsi, from the Property with Justice association, which has also deposited a lawsuit against the law, told BIRN that the law remains highly contested.

"We hope the Constitutional court is going to give us our rights. We have been informed of a meeting in the next two weeks where a decision to stop the government from continuing with the initiative might emerge," Vorpsi said.

Opponents believe ther law contravenes the Albanian constitution, the European convention on human rights and European human rights court decisions on the issue.

Former landowners complain that it does not provide for an exact sum that the state owes former landowners, and say they suspect it will further prolong the process of financial compensation and reduce the amount of money that landowners get.

However, the Justice Minister, Ylli Manjani, on Wednesday said the law was the most serious offer that any government had made to former landowners.

"This offer that we are making through this law resolves in a permanent way the...

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