Justice Vetting Process to Look at Former Communist Spies in Albania

albania, sigurimi, communism, files, secret service, spies
A huge number of communist regime files have been lost or destroyed in Albania.

Tirana, Albania | Tirana Echo – All former collaborators and members of the former Albanian communist secret service ‘Sigurimi’ will be banned from being part of the new ‘Vetting’ structures of the justice system according to the new law approved in Parliament.

While 190 persons have applied to be part of the ‘Vetting’ bodies which will scan Albania’s judges and prosecutors, the Ombudsman has started to look at possible former collaborators of the communist regime who may penetrate the new justice system.

The complex scanning process as outlined by the newly approved ‘Vetting Law’ will start with the Ombudsman, then agreed with the EU and US experts of the International Monitoring Operation and will then land at the Parliament for final debates and approval.

Albania is one of the few countries of the formes eastern communist block which has not dealt with its communist past, with hundreds of secret files destroyed over the past 25 years and several former collaborators of the ‘Sigurimi’ service still occupying key positions in Albania’s public life and civil society.

The Vetting law says that no former member or collaborator of the communist ‘Segurimi’ secret service before 1990 member of the Vetting Institutions can be part of the new justice institutions.

The final responsibility to spot them out will lie with the newly created Authority fo Operning the Files of the Sigurimi Service, the body which should notify the Ombudsman of possible communist links of the new candidates.

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