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This question is based on a real case in a country in Eastern Europe. The defendant being accused of running an organized crime group, seems to be intimidating all the court appointed attorneys into not defending him. Meanwhile he also claims he has no funds to pay for an attorney.

At this point the entire list of court-approved attorneys have chosen not to represent this person. Has this situation happened in any other country, and if so, how has it been dealt with?

EDIT:

For context, this case is in Albania. I have a link (in Albanian) to an article here about the case being dragged for 3 years so far because the court-appointed attorneys refuse to represent this person. Also, it looks like in this case, the court will give judgment either way.

Google Translate version of the article

kisspuska
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Dashi
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  • In the US, I believe it's possible for a court to appoint a private attorney to represent a defendant, and that attorney can't refuse or withdraw except with the court's permission. (Usually the court pays the attorney a lot less than they could be earning otherwise, so the attorney would try to refuse if they could.) Having trouble finding a source for this, though. Also, if a defendant says they cannot afford an attorney, the court can inquire into their assets; they don't have to take the defendant's word for it. – Nate Eldredge Nov 25 '21 at 01:19
  • https://law.stackexchange.com/a/17316/576 has some information about this (though on the side of withdrawing, not of refusing to be appointed in the first place - those may or may not be treated differently). – Nate Eldredge Nov 25 '21 at 01:24
  • Why is the country name a secret? Is it Hungary, Russia or Ukraine? And what’s the case? – kisspuska Nov 25 '21 at 05:30
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    @kisspuska I edited the question with a bit more context. This specific case is in Albania – Dashi Nov 25 '21 at 13:05
  • @Dashi added a link to the Google Translate version of the site – kisspuska Nov 25 '21 at 17:17
  • I don't see in the Google-translated article anything about intimidation. The question is therefore unclear. Either a proper translation to English needs to be provided, or the question needs to be detached from the article altogether. – Greendrake Nov 27 '21 at 01:30

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