Eurasia Press & News
The Albanian Supreme Court Judge, Ardian Nuni, who was shot and wounded a month ago in Tirana has sought asylum in the United States with his family due to fears for his safety, local media reported.
Nuni was operated in Tirana’s Military Hospital, and left the hospital a few says after the assassination attempt on February, 8. According to police the judge was shot four time in the back and arm, outside his house, in Tirana’s Paris Commune neighbourhood.
The police have yet to identify any suspects in the shooting. Nuni, 40, is one of the youngest judges in Albania’s Supreme Court. He took the post in April 2007.
His fellow judges condemned the shooting as a criminal act against their community, and said increased political attacks on the justice system were bolstering criminal elements.
“This grave act is an attack against a Supreme Court judge, a crime against his life, but as such also an attack against all the justice system and the state,” Manjola Bejleri, the head of the Judges Association told Balkan Insight.
“It is not the first time that a judge is attacked, which shows the growth of high level criminality. In Albania judges are given protection only by request if they feel their life is under threat.” she said, adding that this level of protection was not enough and should be extended.
“We have asked the political class not to attack the justice system, because the image of the system and the public’s confidence towards it is being damaged, which makes the system weak against criminal threats,” said Bejleri.
