In 1980, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania conducted a thorough inspection of the activities of the Mat District Prosecutor’s Office. The inspection report that resulted from this inspection reveals a mixture of discipline, incompetence, political interference and a lack of legal clarity in one of the institutions that was supposed to be the guarantor of socialist justice. This rarely published document offers a direct insight into the functioning of justice under the dictatorship.
Who conducted the inspection and what was examined?
The audit was conducted in May 1980 by the General Prosecutor’s Office, with the aim of “evaluating the work on implementing the party line in the prosecution body, conducting the investigation and criminal prosecution, as well as supervising the implementation of the law.”
The material includes:
- Criminal work (cases and investigations)
- Supervision of the investigation
- Decisions to discontinue proceedings
- False or delayed reports
- Relations with local government
Main problems identified
In summary, the inspection report states:
“The work of the investigation and prosecution in Mat has had serious shortcomings in professional preparation, in the regular prosecution of criminal cases, and in the attitudes towards information coming from citizens.”
Lack of in-depth investigative work
- In some cases, the circumstances were not fully verified , but rather one-sided evidence sufficed.
- Investigators tended to shorten the deadlines for the procedure , causing “processes to be concluded without delving into the main evidence.”
Premature discontinuation of cases
A large number of cases were dismissed without a solid legal basis . In one specific case, the investigator dismissed the case against a defendant who had caused serious physical harm on the grounds that there was “no hostile intent.”
Formal reporting and non-fulfillment of the plan
- Of the 7 cases that were supposed to be reported to the local government for follow-up actions, only 2 were reported.
- A lack of cooperation with Party organizations is revealed, not including Front structures in the investigation of social cases.
Intervention of Party structures in investigative decisions
Some of the cases were influenced by verbal guidance given by local Party leaders . The prosecutor admitted that in certain cases “he had consulted with Party secretaries to avoid pursuing a sensitive case.”
This fact constitutes a violation of the principle of independence of the prosecution , but it was a common reality in the socialist system where the Party was above everything.
Failure to fulfill obligations towards convicts and asset verifications
- Regular inspections were not carried out in places of imprisonment.
- For cases of illegally acquired assets, there were no investigative procedures in 1979–1980 in Mat.
Final assessment: more implementation of the Party line than the law
The document concludes the analysis with these words:
“There is a need to deepen the responsibility of the Mat District Prosecutor’s Office in implementing the Party’s line towards in-depth investigation, punishment on clear grounds, and increasing its political role in educating the masses.”
So, the role of the prosecution body in the dictatorship was twofold: not only for criminal prosecution, but for political education of the people according to the Party line .
A document that talks about the entire system
This audit is not just an assessment of the Mati Prosecutor’s Office – it is a reflection of the functioning of justice in a dictatorship: total control, interference by political structures, and the implementation of the law in the service of the Party, not the state.
