Lay judge

Within three years 32 judges have been dismissed for delays

Delays in the administration of justice by the Council of State, the country's highest administrative court, is usually the rule rather than the exception, as there are currently 11,000 cases pending.

In fact, many cases are adjourned up to 10 or more times, at the initiative of the judges themselves, and there are extreme cases such as the adjournment of one case 72 times. 

The mass sacking of judges and prosecutors under the vetting process has created gaps in the system and a record overload of delayed cases.

Courthouses in Turkey will start using thermal cameras at their entrances to screen for fevers to prevent anyone potentially infected with the coronavirus from entering the premises, Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül said on May 29 as the country's judiciary is set to resume its work as part of its normalization phase.

In one case, a lay judge failed to declare that she was the sister of the defence lawyer. The resignation or retirement of a lay judge, by law, returns the trial to the beginning, costing often months or even years of court time.

Judges and prosecutors have to display poise and wisdom when posting online, because their opinions influence society's perception of the judiciary, reads one of the conclusions of a conference to release good practice guidance for magistrates using social media or online platforms.

Some of the government's choices concerning the justice system have been truly terrible as it was guided by the notion that it needed judges it could control, regardless of the course of their careers or their reputation.

As is always the case when the principle behind a decision is wrong, the government has and will continue to pay for this mistake.

Albania's long-awaited Special Prosecution Office, SPAK, tasked with investigating high-level cases of corruption and organised crime, has yet to be established even though its formation was approved in August last year.

Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov called for more law and less politics to enable the judicial reform. He spoke at a chess meeting with investigators and members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), with the participation of Russian chess player and MP Anatoly Karpov, a reporter of FOCUS News Agency said.

Judges and prosecutors are to return to work in the coming days with a mountain of cases, many that have dragged on for months - if not years - to push through the slow Greek court system.

After elections to appoint new judges and prosecutors this coming Saturday, courts are expected to get back to work in earnest.