Witness Protection and collaborators of Justice in Albania

• Author: Borana Ismaili
• Pages: 59-65

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

Vol. 1 No. 2

June, 2017

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

59

Witness Protection and collaborators of Justice in Albania

Borana Ismaili

Abstract

Recent years as a result of globalization, the free movement of people and the revolution

of information technology have increased signifi cantly crime and new forms of crime have

appeared, endangering the safety and life of citizens, and consequently the need to enforce

stringent legal and institutional measures against terrorism and organized crime.

Therefore, based on witnesses’ declaration and justice collaborators who cooperate with

juridical authorities it is an invaluable contribution to the war against organized crime and

international institutions such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European

Union, which have adopted the necessary legislation as well as recommend member states to

establish the right legislative framework to enable co-operation with witnesses and to provide

their protection.

Thus, based on the decisive role of witnesses and collaborators of justice in achieving successful

results in the fi ght against organized crime and terrorism, I was motivated to undertake this

scientifi c paper focusing precisely on the treatment and analysis of the role of witnesses and

justice collaborators in criminal proceedings.

Keywords: witness, Protection Program, judicial reform, Albania.

Introduction

This project aims to address and interpret the standards set by international and

European institutions regarding the protection of witnesses and justice collaborators,

as well as their refl ection on Albanian legislation including new changes to the

Criminal Procedure Code expected to enter in Force on August 1, 2017.

The witness protection for the fi rst time appeared in the United States in 1970 as

a legally sanctioned procedure to be used in accordance with a witness protection

program that provided priceless assistance to the dismantling of criminal mafi a

organizations.

By then, among the members of the mafi a, it was abided the “Code of Silence” known

as Omerta, a set of unwri en rules, which sanctioned that the members and anyone

who denounced the police was threatened with death. Convincing witnesses to

cooperate with the police was di cult. In this situation, the United States Department

of Justice consolidated its conviction of creating a witness protection program and

institutionalizing (Montanino, 1987) it as “O cial secret programs where inclusion in it

be subject to strict admission criteria and contain the relocation and alteration of the identity

of witnesses whose lives have been threatened by a criminal group due to cooperation with

legal authorities.

Based on the United Nations Manual on the Protection of Witnesses Involved in

Organized Crime, the notion of a witness is defi ned as a person who possesses

important information about a court case and regardless of his legal status (informant,

witness, court employee, secret agent, etc.) fulfi lls the conditions to be included in the