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"Judges under pressure from SPAK after being wiretapped", English judge calls Ledi Bianku's arguments speculative during an extradition process in London
2026-03-17 19:50:18 / AKTUALITET
US President Donald Trump declared that the war with Iran is a "little excursion" and is expected to end within two weeks.
Top Channel journalist Muhamed Veliu has at his disposal Judge Sternberg's decision dated March 12, against SPAK's wanted person, Alban Gjidiaj, for arms trafficking from Albania to England.
Ledi Bianku testified in court via video link, as an expert called by Alban Gjidiaj's defense to block extradition, a battle that the young man from Tropoja lost.
Ledi Bianku's narrative in the service of Gjidiaj's defense, to help block extradition, is related to the claims that what SPAK prosecutors request, GJKKO judges decide.
According to Ledi Bianku's testimony, SPAK and BKH, which investigated this arms trafficking with four arrested in Albania, are institutions involved in the surveillance of judges.
“The law provides that wiretapping/surveillance applies only to judges of special courts. In February 2025, Albanian media reported that a case regarding the wiretapping of a judge of the Constitutional Court had been accepted by the Constitutional Court. The case concerned detention/pre-trial detention measures and was filed by SPAK. The media revealed that the rapporteur judge was wiretapped by SPAK for two weeks, while the Constitutional Court was considering the case.”
"I also see a problem regarding the confidentiality of the consideration of a case among judges," Ledi Bianku said further in her testimony.
"If a judge reviewing criminal proceedings sends emails, conducts online proceedings or exchanges communications with colleagues, legal advisors, etc. and if all these communications could potentially be under the supervision of SPAK and BKH, this constitutes a threat to the independence of the process. A judge who is under wiretapping will be more careful in his assessments, in exchanges with colleagues and in drafting a legal opinion, as well as in rejecting requests from SPAK. This affects the foundations of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary."
Judge Daniel Sternberg admits that Professor Bianku has concerns regarding the possibility of wiretapping judges in the Special Courts of First Instance and Appeals.
However, the English judge emphasizes, he acknowledged that the Constitutional Court of Albania has confirmed the validity of these measures and that there is no jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights regarding Albania on this issue.
"His opinion that the judges in that court would feel constrained to rule in favor of the prosecution in requests for detention measures and in subsequent criminal proceedings is, in my assessment, speculative and based on assumptions, not on a proper evidentiary basis. The fact that I have considered Professor Bianku to be an expert in matters of Albanian law and that he has attempted to provide accurate evidence does not mean that I am obliged to accept his conclusions."
Therefore, says Judge Daniel Sternberg, there is no evidence to support the claim that judges in that court would feel compelled to agree to the requests made by the SPAK prosecution because they could be subject to wiretapping by that authority. As I have emphasized, this is speculative. It is a conjectural conclusion, which I do not consider certain.
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