About 800 Albanian judges, prosecutors to submit wealth, integrity forms till Jan. 31

Around 800 judges and prosecutors across Albania will undergo a vetting process as they will fill three forms required to discover data about their wealth, professional standing and integrity, local media reported Thursday.

The three forms must be submitted by Jan. 31 to comply with the vetting process deadlines.

All judges and prosecutors must submit their wealth declaration forms at the Supreme Inspectorate for Declaration of Wealth, also their personal information forms at the Directory of Classified Information.

Then the prosecutors must submit their professional data at the Prosecution General, and the judges at the Supreme Judicial Council, official sources said Thursday.

When the deadline is approaching, the number of judges and prosecutors submitting the forms is increasing. However, the number is still considered low by the authorities.

As of Thursday, only 180 forms were submitted to the Supreme Inspectorate for Declaration of Wealth, media added.

If judges and prosecutors fail to submit the forms within the legal deadline, they risk being removed from the justice system.

The vetting law was approved with a majority of votes in late August 2016.

Albanian authorities have taken this law as the one to enhance the trust of citizens in Albania's judiciary. Endit