Theodhori Sollaku

Theodhori Sollaku was the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Albania from 2002 to 2007. He was appointed on March 29, 2002, to replace Arben Rakipi, who had been removed from office through a procedure later ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Albania. Nevertheless, Sollaku was not removed from office in order to restore Rakipi.

During Sali Berisha's presidency in the 1990s, Sollaku served as the President's Legal Advisor. When Berisha became Prime Minister in 2005, he almost immediately began to call for Sollaku's dismissal on corruption charges. Berisha's Democratic Party of Albania brought 83 accusations of criminal acts to a special parliamentary investigative committee, which promptly found that all 83 accusations were well-grounded and recommended Sollaku's dismissal. President Alfred Moisiu, however, rejected the committee's findings and Sollaku was not dismissed.

Regardless of whether Sollaku committed any criminal acts, it is generally agreed even among those opposing the parliamentary committee's findings that he should have been more active in fighting corruption, especially among Albania's political elite.

With the election of Bamir Topi as President of Albania on July 24, 2007, there were renewed calls for Sollaku's resignation or dismissal. Even before receiving any findings or request from Parliament, Topi stated that he would not block any attempts for Sollaku's dismissal.

In September 2007, the Albanian prosecution services brought charges against several high officials, including a deputy minister in the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation. This ministry previously had been led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lulzim Basha, thus making drawing the Minister into the affair. Accusations of corruption were made against Basha and Sollaku sought the lifting of Basha's parliamentary immunity in order to allow prosecution to go forward. This request led to suspicions that Sollaku's dismissal came so soon in order to avoid such a prosecution, but also that Sollaku was bringing the case in order to make it politically more difficult to dismiss him. The difficulties were compounded by the resignation of Minister of Justice Ilir Rusmali amid a corruption scandal. Here too a prosecution was possible and thus a prosecutor general more indebted to the ruling party would be helpful.

On October 15, 2007, the Democratic Party of Albania members of parliament brought a request to create a second parliamentary inquiry committee to recommend Sollaku's dismissal. The same day, Sollaku deposited a request for the lifting of Basha's immunity, but Deputy Speaker of Parliament Fatos Beja claimed not to have received the request. On October 25, 2007, the Assembly approved the creation of the second inquiry committee and gave the committee one month to reach its conclusions. The inquiry committee, which was boycotted by the Opposition, made a perfunctory inquiry into the allegations against Sollaku and, on November 5, 2007, recommended that the President dismiss him. Meanwhile, on December 10, 2007, the Albanian Constitutional Court heard a case brought by Sollaku challenging the constitutionality of the proceedings but has not yet reached a decision.

Despite the constitutional challenge, President Bamir Topi issued a decision on November 22, 2007, to dismiss Sollaku. The same day, the Assembly elected Ina Rama, previously a judge on the Appeals Court for Serious Crimes, as the new Prosecutor General. This decision presents the Constitutional Court with a "fait accompli" that, as the case of Arben Rakipi shows, it has no effective power to change, regardless of its decision on the constitutional merits of the case.