US, EU Monitors Urge Dismissal of Tirana’s Top Prosecutor

The International Monitoring Operation, created to oversee a vetting process in Albania launched under EU and US pressure in 2017, issued a decision saying Tirana chief prosecutor Elizabeta Imeraj "has significantly jeopardised public trust in the judicial system" and should be removed from the post.

It followed a ruling by the Vetting Commission - tasked with rooting out corrupt judges and prosecutors - that Imeraj should stay.

The prosecutor, a controversial figure, has been accused by one of the observers, Theo Jacobs, of blackmailing members of the Vetting Commission and organising for another member of the monitoring operation to be followed.

Imeraj, branded "an icon of crime" by opposition leader Lulzim Basha, has denied any wrongdoing.

The observers, however, have also raised concern about a wave of ghost websites that pose as news media outlets and which claim to possess evidence of sex scandals involving some of the international observers.

On Tuesday, the US Ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim, appeared to back the observers, citing their recommendation "in an important case."

"Will the response be to show courage & integrity to deliver justice or, as we have seen too often in the past, to divert efforts by attacking the vetting process & slandering international monitors?" Kim tweeted.

The EU's ambassador in Tirana, Luigi Soreca, also weighed in.

"We fully support the International Observers' recommendation for appeal," he said. "We look forward to the Special Appeal Chamber reviewing the case with integrity and independence to ensure that the significant issues highlighted in the recommendation for appeal are duly considered."

Media complicity

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