Member of the Academy of Sciences, Artan Fuga, has sent a public letter to the members of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Albania for the review by this court of the request received from a group of deputies of the Democratic Party for the repeal of Law No. 69/2023, dated 21.07.2023 on certain amendments to the law on the Academy of Sciences in the Republic of Albania.
This law brought at least two modifications to the law on the Academy of Sciences, namely allowing the president and vice-president of this Academy to run continuously to retain their positions; and it also made an exception for the president of the Academy of Sciences to continue in his functions even after the age of 75, which is prohibited for any other member of the Assembly.
In this public letter, Fuga says that what was worrying for him was precisely the fact that the Constitutional Court, not through administrative means, but through the review of this issue by the body of judges, refused his presence at the session, summoned with the status of a subject interested in this issue.
"Honorable ladies and gentlemen of the court,
I am addressing you with this public letter, not at all for any personal interest, but with the civic concern related to the respect of law 45/2021, number 8577, on the organization and functioning of the Constitutional Court in the Republic of Albania. In other words, the law that regulates the functioning of that very important part of the law that you have undertaken to implement.
Based on the data I have, kindly provided by sources close to the Albanian Parliament, I have formed the conviction that due to the non-rigorous implementation of specific articles of this law, my rights as a citizen have been affected, I have been seriously hindered in the exercise of my official duties as a member of the Academy of Sciences, and I also feel a lack of impartiality in your position regarding a matter that has been announced to be tried by that Court on 22.01.2025.
This concerns the Constitutional Court's review of the request submitted by a group of deputies of the Democratic Party for the repeal of Law No. 69/2023, dated 21.07.2023 on certain amendments to the law on the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Albania. This law brought at least two modifications to the law on the Academy of Sciences, namely allowing the President and Vice-President of this Academy to run continuously to hold their positions again; and it also made an exception for the President of the Academy of Sciences to continue in his functions even after the age of 75, which is prohibited for any other member of the Assembly.
Duhet të sqaroj ju si edhe publikun që unë nuk kam asnjë lidhje, madje edhe asnjë interes, për këtë kërkesë të parashtruar në Gjykatën Kushtetuese nga një grup deputetësh të partisë demokratike. Më specifikisht, deklaroj se nuk është fare në axhendën e veprimeve dhe mosveprimeve të mia aktuale, dhe se e njoh faktin që unë nuk kam mundësi të ve në lëvizje Gjykatën Kushtetuese, mbi bazën e vet ligjit të saj. Por, sikurse opinioni publik e di mirë, në kohën kur këto ndryshime ligjore po përpunoheshin dhe u votuan në Kuvendin e Shqipërisë, unë jam shprehur hapur kundër tyre. Pa hyrë në analizën e dëmeve që ato ndryshime kanë sjellë, në atë kohë kam denoncuar projektligjin në fjalë si antikushtetues, alogjik, dhe në kundërshtim me akte të tjera ligjore, si edhe sepse krijonin kundërthënie paradoksale brenda vetë ligjit aktualisht në fuqi për Akademinë e Shkencave.
Theksoj, se denoncimet e mia nuk drejtoheshin aspak kundër ndokujt personalisht, as kundër Akademisë së Shkencave. Kjo për arsyen e thjeshtë sepse juridikisht ndryshimet ligjore nuk propozoheshin nga ana e Akademisë së Shkencave, por kishin si iniciatorë dy deputetë të Kuvendit të Shqipërisë, zz. Petro Koçi dhe Ismet Beqiraj. Kritikat, denoncimet, kundërshtitë e mia drejtoheshin ndaj formulimeve që këta zotërinj kanë bërë duke sjellë dëme serioze. Kurse sa për funksionimin, rolin dhe administrimin e Akademisë së Shkencave, dihet publikisht qëndrimi im kritik dhe mospajtues, por kjo është një çështje tjetër.
Problemi është se deputetët e partisë demokratike në padinë për shfuqizimit të ligjit në fjalë si antikushtetues, drejtuar Gjykatës Kushtetuese, kanë kërkuar që si subjekt i interesuar të thirrem edhe unë. Si kurse theksova, kjo nuk ka lidhje me agjendën time aktuale, por me agjendën e partisë demokratike. Por, megjithatë është e drejta e tyre, dhe jo imja, që të kërkojnë thirrjen time në seancën gjyqësore si subjekt i interesuar. A vij apo jo unë, kjo është çështje që më takon mua, jo atyre. Unë as nuk jam pyetur sa më sipër prej tyre, as nuk kam shprehur ndonjë dëshirë që të jem i thirrur.
Shqetësuese për mua personalisht ka qenë pikërisht fakti se Gjykata Kushtetuese, jo në rrugë administrative, por me anë të shqyrtimit të kësaj çështjeje nga trupa e gjyqtarëve, ka refuzuar praninë time në seancë, i thirrur me statusin e subjektit të interesuar për këtë çështje.
Pikërisht ky refuzim arbitrar nga ana e Gjykatës Kushtetuese për të më pranuar si subjekti i interesuar dhe për të marrë pjesë në seancën gjyqësore, çmoj se është në kundërshtim me ligjin, ndërmerret në mënyrë arbitrare, shkel me këmbë të drejtat e mia qytetare të njohura me ligj, më pengon seriozisht në ushtrimin e detyrave të mia të përcaktuara me ligj, si edhe në sytë e mi e kompromenton haptazi paraprakisht paanësinë dhe drejtësinë e gjykimit të kësaj çështjeje.
Mua më është krijuar opinioni se bazuar këtu çështja është paragjykuar përpara sesa të fillojë të gjykohet.
Qofsha i gabuar!
According to the law regulating the functioning of the Constitutional Court, (Article 39, point b) and according to its Internal Regulations, it is stated clearly and unequivocally that in the session the parties may request to be summoned to the trial also "subjects... who have a direct interest in the matter being examined".
I am, in fact, a very interested subject in the issue under consideration. Not from my subjective conviction and assessment, but from the normative and legal status that I have. This is how the complaining party considered it. And secondly, do not forget that I was considered as such during the legal construction process, with an official letter from the Albanian Parliament. Thirdly, I do not know if it applies to you, but I inform you that I am a member of the Academy of Sciences, the only one who has expressed opposition to the draft law initiated by the aforementioned deputies.
When you declare the Academy of Sciences as an interested party, how can you exclude me as its member?
Having examined the law regulating the functioning of the Constitutional Court, a basic institution for ensuring the constitutionality of laws in Albania, as well as the Regulation on the internal functioning of that Court, I conclude that in order to exclude someone from participating as an “interested subject” in a session, certain circumstances must be met. According to Article 29 of the Law and Article 22 of the Regulation, these circumstances are when the party or interested subject risks violating
- Public morality. Do you have any reason to believe that my presence at the hearing violates public morality? If so, please tell me publicly, honestly, as it would be worth correcting yourself through honest public self-criticism.
- Public order. I violate public order? How can I do this while participating in that court session? It doesn't occur to me, especially since the law has provided criminal penalties for those who violate public order.
- National security. I am a patriot, honorable judges, and I do not serve any hostile country that violates the territorial integrity or sovereignty of my homeland. It never occurs to me that you think otherwise about me because I would be deeply disappointed.
- Rights to private life, personal rights or public health. Even if I wanted to harm public health with my presence, or violate the personal rights of the MPs who initiated the draft law in question, namely Mr. Petro Koçi and Mr. Ismet Beqiraj, I do not see how I would be able to do this.
I think that under the law in force I would have to endanger society in one of the above cases to be excluded from the hearing. But, I will not enter into any of those cases, unless you have information that I do not know.
In one of your several rejection letters, signed by the Secretary General of that Court, Mr. Eugen Papandile, precisely in the letter dated 20.09.2024, it is stated that the measure for my non-admission as an interested subject passed “to the assessment of the body of Judges of the Constitutional Court.” And this: “despite the fact that (the request) was submitted through administrative channels.”
So, a panel of judges has violated my rights as a citizen and prevented me from performing the duties assigned to me by law!!! Unbelievable! I have been expelled by the decision of the panel of constitutional judges!!!
I would never have believed I would have reached these dangerous heights!
However, philosophical education has made me doubt my beliefs, not to accept them as valid for others, without making a verification. As a lecturer of a number of law students who are today prosecutors, judges, lecturers of other law students, as are also in your bosom, I carefully returned to the Law and the Regulation that articulates your functioning. But, both Article 13 of the Law and Article 11 of the Regulation, while granting a series of competencies to the body of judges, do not recognize any reason for it to refuse a subject to be in the session as an interested subject.
Then by what legal powers does the body of judges deprive me of my civil rights? Based on which article of the Law or the Regulation? It is known that no matter how high and respected that body is, or the opposite, in no case can it be deprived of its powers, nor can it give itself powers beyond what the law limits?
Why should I become a victim of this arbitrariness?
My astonishment reached its peak, my boredom would have become as high as a hydroelectric dam, if I had not long ago taken the violation of my civil rights with sport, as something fatal. I have become stoic like the emperor Marcus Aurelius, whom I believe you have read, or like the slave Epictetus, whose writings perhaps have fallen into your hands. With something that is fatal, you must do your best to coexist, otherwise you get sick, go crazy, die.
In the letter dated 20.09.2024, also signed by Mr. Eugen Papandile, your Court addresses the group of democratic deputies with the following strange, surprising, unthinkable sentence: "Regarding what you submit to summon Mr. Artan Fuga in the constitutional process, we inform you that you can make his position part of your submissions. The submissions as well as the documents/materials should be submitted in as many copies as there are parties..."
How much it would have fed my arrogance if the parliamentary group of the democratic party had had enough humility towards me to go so far as to read my arguments before the Court!
I can honestly say that when I read this suggestion, I burst out laughing!
A piercing question came to my mind as soon as I read this sentence. Mossss! – I said to myself. This is how far the logical-legal incoherence has come! Such a high Court excludes me by personally nominating me as if I had been a Big Brother character? It makes me individually the object of a judicial decision, procedural, but still judicial.
This also gives me a certain pride, why not be honest? I do not believe that any academic from any country on our planet has been suspected of risking harming public order, public security, or public health! Much less has he been nominally made the object of a trial by any Constitutional Court!!!
By means of the aforementioned letter, the Constitutional Court accepts that my arguments be brought to the hearing, but not by me. By others. So, it does not contradict my arguments, with my subjective logical-phenomenological self, but with my physical body. So, according to a Cartesian logic, it divides me into the duality of soul - body, it accepts my soul, but not my body.
If only I were at the gates of hell and Saint Peter were doing the filtering!
Let the Democratic Party MPs present my arguments for me???
I have nothing against them, except for the fact that they want to exhaust their political weakness in the Albanian Parliament with futile complaints to the Constitutional Court. An effort in my opinion that is both futile and prejudiced from the beginning. Are they still not convinced of this? But, this is their job. My question, both legal and hermeneutical, is how does the Constitutional Court accept that some interested individuals with a political orientation authentically bring my arguments before it? How does it trust them? By what logical, epistemological, legal right does that Court deprive me of the right not to present my arguments, my ideas, my criticisms, myself, but to have opposition MPs do this, even my esteemed friend Mrs. Ina Zhupa?
Not even the jury that sentenced Socrates the Great to death in Athens prevented him from expressing his own thoughts. This is what the Constitutional Court in Albania does for Artan the Lesser! Where has it been seen that a court accepts to administer someone's statements, but deprives their author of the right to say them himself, that is, to declare them responsibly in respect of the jury? And instead authorizes others to do this in his place? Does the Court have any power of attorney from me to do this?
Where does the Constitutional Court find the competence to publicly declare, through a procedural or judicial decision, my inability to act autonomously, without the need for my words to come out of the lips of the deputies of the democratic party?
How does the Honorable Constitutional Court know that MP Ina Zhupa or her colleagues have in their hands the authentic copy of my statements? Why do you blindly trust them that they know how to correctly interpret my argument about the unconstitutionality of the legal product of Mr. Petro Koçi and Mr. Ismet Beqiraj?
The legal hassle then becomes painful.
It hurts my soul.
Honestly.
The Court's letter, signed by Mr. Papandile, states that my arguments should be given only in writing, and in as many copies, no more and no less, as there are parties in the hearing!!! So, the court also determines the code with which I will express myself. In writing, not orally! Where does this right come from? Doesn't this violate my right to speech?
I say this honestly, ladies and gentlemen of the court!
I didn't have the Academy of Sciences to worry about when this law was approved by the Albanian Parliament.
But, I had the problem of the Albanian Parliament!
When the President of the Republic, Mr. Bajram Begaj, decreed this law, while declaring to the whole world through the Voice of America, that it was a law with normative flaws,
I no longer had to worry about the Assembly, but about the President of the Republic.
Now that I read these documents that the wind has brought into my hands, learning with what justifications you exclude me from the session, reject me, deprive me of my civil rights, prevent me from exercising my duty, as well as seeing the wretchedness of the arguments in the cited documents,
I no longer care about the Academy of Sciences, the Parliament of Albania, or the President of the Republic,
but of the Constitutional Court!
However, I feel appreciated. I am excluded because someone appreciates me so much that they think I can change the course of the session. That's for sure! – he is convinced in his head. I can take it in an unwanted direction – he says anxiously. So, I can convince you with my arguments.
Someone has suspicions about you too!
Not only me, but you too, are prejudiced, me as your victim and you as my convinced audience!
But, let those who have sealed my exclusion from the session, fearing my presence there, rest in peace:
Even if you invite me, I refuse to come.
Why?
Because I have no faith in you, perhaps more accurately, I have no faith in all those among you who have wanted to "give me poison" without listening to me!
As for the Democratic Party deputies who are waiting for the end of the court session, I am sorry to tell them:
I know the decision! Don't entertain any illusions!
"Abandon all hope!" (A2 Televizion)
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MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
