Tag: Kosovo

The constitution of Kosovo guarantees a fair and rapid juridical process.Kapiti family and Kosumi family had two wait a lot of years for juridical process.

Kapiti family is being waiting since 1999 for a juridical process of a murder that their son committed. After 13 years of process the court gave the verdict that it was an occasional murder.Familiar of the accused explain the situation how all this happened.

The family members of the two victims do not want to comment. The lawyer of Kapiti Azem Vllasi says that his right for a rapid process was violated.

The judgment of this case is a marathon he added. “Kapiti case passed all the reasonable terms of a judgment” said Fejzullah Hasani head of the Supreme Court.

Another similar case is the case of the 75 year old Isa Qerimi from Gilan since 14 years didn’t get a final verdict from the court.He used to work for 20 years till 1990 as a stimulant interpreter in the municipality of Gilan.

After the war even he presented requests to come back to his working place he never got answer.For this reason he made an indictment in September 2000 and still today he doesn’t have an answer.

“Some of the former employees of the municipality who made the indictment toward the municipality were not lucky to wait for the verdict cause they died during this 14 year” said Head of the basic court of Gilan Zyhdi Haziri .
Now this case is being treated again by the basic court of Gilan.

“We will respect the verdict of the court “said Arber Ismajli from the municipality of Gjilan.

According the statistics on the courts of Kosovo there are 420 thousand cases not resolved.
Kosumi family became also a regular visitor of the court since their brother died in a traffic accident on the way Podujev – Prishtina.

The request from the family for compensation from the insurance company is still on the court.
“After 8 years this case will be preceded” said the head of the Court Salih Meka.On the basic court 400 thousand cases are waiting for a verdict.

“Soon we will be obliged by the EU to make a law that will stop the prolonging of the process “said Fejzullah Hasani head of the Basic court.

“If the right for a fair judgment is violated it threatens also other human rights” said Arpi Avetisyan lawer.

Below there is an insert from the Kosovo police traffic patrolling in Pristina.
It presents an action from the police regarding the alcohol consuming while driving and if drivers respect the traffic signs.

In the offices of the Kosovo police are stored documents of high importance. For a long time whispers were circulating that Serbian MUP had access on them.
This became stronger after the action of the police in Shterpca region.

These four officials working in the police station of Shterpca were under suspicion of leaking information to the MUP: Radisha Markovic,Dragan Markovic,Dejan Stojanovic,Dejan Gjorkovic.

Discovering the network came 3 months after of investigation by the police of KosovoThe Police of Kosovo organized a raid at the house of a Serbian citizen of Shterpca, Dragotin Ivanovic.During this raid guns were confiscated along with technical devices like mobile phones also documents.

Another part treated in the same in this Municipality is the functioning of the parallel Court.
Even though Edita Tahiri promised that no parallel institutions will exist after signing the agreement with Belgrade.

A parallel court giving verdicts still exists. This court left Dragotin Ivanovic in house arrest. The prosecution didn’t agree on this and sent the case to the Court of Appeal.

The head of the Court in Ferizaj was contacted by a reporter from “Justice in Kosovo.” but the individual chose not to comment

According the law in Kosovo if an accused person cannot support to pay a lawyer, the state finds one for him. This is called ex officio lawyer.

All licensed lawyers should be committed by the state but according the lists of ex officio engaged lawyers only some names appear.

On February 2011 “Justice in Kosovo” reported irregularities on the engagement of ex-officio lawers.

In 2014 the situation a little changed.
The most paid ex-officio lawyers in the two biggest districts Pristine and Prizren are, in Pristina the lawyer Drita Hoxha with a total of 4467 euro, Zymrete Muniqi Zeka 4386 euro, Adem Ademi 4216 euro and Ali Beka 3948 euro.

In the district of Prizren on top of the list is the lawyer Hana Canaj with a total of 5400 euro , than Hajrip Krasniqi with 4924 euro ,Avni Berisha 4881 euro and Osman Zajmi me 4058 euro.

The same situation there is on the prosecution list, on top of the list as most paid for ex officio engagement is the lawyer Arsim Bilali with a total of 3642 euro than Halil Derguti with 3157 euro, Fatmire Braha me 2784 euro and Hana Canaj me 2504 euro.

“If we check the payment list of the lawyer’s specific names being engaged more frequently bring the doubt of selection according personal preferences” said Ylli Zeka head of the Chamber of lawyers

“In the district of Pristina we have a number of 100 lawyer declared for ex officio defense service and only a minor number is being called for ex officio defense” said Administrator of the Chamber of Lawyers Florim Shefqeti.
The chamber of Lawyer created a system for a fair selection of the ex officio lawyer but still today it is not working.

A lot of suspicious guys were benefiting from breaking the law from the possibility given to Serbs during 2011-2012 to register their cars on RKS OR KS plates without having to pay taxes and custom. The police officers found 964 cars with falsified registration files, only in one center of registration.

Falsified registration files were found from the police in the registration center of Llapnalles and they have the suspicion that should be also others in other localities.

The police found out this out accidentally during another mission on human trafficking in Gracanica while raiding a house they saw all the papers.
They found 964 falsified car registration file on November 22, 2013 and after this they raided the vehicle registration center in Llapanesell village.

Approximately the fee of paying taxes and custom is about 2 thousand euro.

The Middle Man
The police found out that under suspicion, D.D and N.K were mediating the registration of a vast number of cars.

According to the police the D.D was finding the clients who wanted to register their cars and his collaborator N.K prepared all the documents.

For this registration procedure they were asking from 1 up to 2 thousand euro. Police is presuming that a large number of luxury cars registered in more than 13 years were registered this way avoiding taxes.

On the administrative order 38/2012 for registration of cars from the plates from FRY to temporarily RKS plates, Article 2 permits the registration of all cars registered in Kosovo before and after June 10, 1999, with only one condition that they should not have been registered after October 31, 2011.

The Coordinator of this registration center part of the Ministry of Internal of Kosovo explains the procedure of registration: “This procedure was meant to re-register the cars from the plates PR to RKS or KS “said Vitkoviq.

He explained that during the registration they had always to leave to our office the old document released by Serbian authorities.

According to Vitkoviq the cars were registered with no previous verification.

“We didn’t verify the car. It was done after registering them. Our responsibility was only to register them. We couldn’t verify the document realized by the Serbian” said Vitkoviq.

Even the Administrative order 38/2012 of the Ministry of Intern for sees that the verification comes after they finish with the registration and give the plates to the car.

 

 

 

 

On January 11, 2014 Gani Berisha cut off the line of cars in the area known as “Albanian market” and was stopped by two police officers who gave him a ticket.
Berisha said that when he went to the police station to pay the ticket, he saw one of the police officers that stopped him that day. The police officer put Berisha the hand cuffs and punched him till he lost consciousness.

Berisha was sent to a hospital in Prizren. This fact was confirmed by Dr. Sadri Hulaj: “The patient Gani Berisha arrived at 16:55 with an ambulance in critical condition. He was beaten in the Prizren police station according to Hulaj.

Lulzim Shala head of the traffic unit in Prizren said he is aware of this case since Gani Berisha reported it.
“I have no information that he was beaten at least that’s what the police officers told me. They say he fell himself, most probably he is suffering from a disease like epilepsy” said Shala.

But Hulaj treated Berisha and said that the patient had no signs of any disease and he was just beaten.
“It is written in the report that the headaches were a result of punches” said Hulaj.

“Justice in Kosovo” contacted the two police officers I.V and F.G who stopped the citizen Berisha, one of them was suspected to have beaten Berisha at the police station, but it was impossible to talk to them as the Inspectorate of police is doing investigations on this case.

“IPK accepted a complaint by a citizen regarding this case and now the investigation department in collaboration with the prosecution is treating the case” said the spokesperson of the Inspectorate of Kosovo Police, Arber Beka.

The second case that “Justice in Kosovo” covered is the incident that happened on the street “Deshmoret e Kombit” where an unknown person driving too fast went off the road and hit 3 people.

The person that caused the accident left, without offering help to the wounded people, Florent Krasniqi and Hana Mehmetaj were badly wounded, while Valon Prapashtica less wounded.

Mehdi Krasniqi father of Florent Krasniqi, found out who caused this accident 10 days later. He met occasionally a witness of the accident who had recorded the plates of the car that wounded three people.

This plate registration belonged to the car of the police officer Shefki Qerimi. This evidence brought the Police Inspectorate to sue the police officer.

The Basic Court of Pristina on November 18, 2013 announced Shefki Qerimi guilty and sentenced him to 9 months of jail.
Qerimi did not want to comment. He said that he made a complaint on the Court of Appeal and is waiting for their verdict.

Hasan Berisha a citizen of Gjakova told that he paid 20 thousand euro to get a stamp for registering his land in the Land Consolidation Office of Gjakova.

In 2005 Skender Sina was under accusation for getting 20 thousand euro to facilitate the procedures for registration of the land.

Berisha explained how the official of NSH “Gjeodezia” Skender Sina contacted him and proposed to pay and get the land land registration easily. They met in a restaurant in the Xerxa village and agreed together to resolve this problem.

Berisha registered the whole conversation he had with Skender Sina, having it as a guarantee when he gave the money, 20 thousand euro.
But both of them didn’t know that police officers were following the whole deal.

On November 2005, the indictment was opened from the prosecution of Gjakova against Sina for bribery.This case was transferred to the Court of Decan.

After 3 years Sina was announced guilty and sentenced to 1 year in jail by the Court of Decan.Skender Sina claimed on the verdict of this court. The Court decided that the voice recording needed to be verified on a professional laboratory.
And after this decision nothing was done, 8 years after the penal offense was committed.

Without the expertise, the court cannot take a verdict on this case
As this case is not being treated for several years “Justice in Kosovo” asked for responsibility for the responsibility for the obsolescence of the case, Ministry of Justice but there was no answer.

Hasan Berisha said that he had the information that his case will be intentionally left not proceeded to get old.8 days before the case expired the judge called for a judgment, Sina did not accept the verdict.

Hasan Berisha said that he is sure the case will continue to be delayed since it happened in the past.
The next court session will be on March, 3 of this year

 

The municipality of Mitrovica took the risk of paying millions of euros as compensation for the mistakes that were made in the contracts of a custom terminal and a college.

“Justice in Kosovo”, during the investigation found out that the municipality run by Avni Kastrati and Bajram Rexhepi gave both these two subjects the same property to use.

This land property is known as Ibri Island. In 2008 when Bajram Rexhepi was mayor of Mitrovica there was a decision where part of this land would be given to the International College of Business.One year later with another decision, the municipality decided to give this property to the DM Company.

In 2010, they realized they made a mistake when calculating the area of the land, and another decision was taken to take land from the college and give it to the company DM, where his company built the custom terminal. This investment cost around 3 million euro.

Even though the municipality of Mitrovica thought they resolved the problem in 2013, the new mayor Avni Kastrati released another decision taking land from the company DM, giving it to the college

DM Company sued the municipality of Mitrovica and the college is planning to sue as well.

Vice Mayor of the Municipality said that the contract signed with DM company is illegal because it does not have assembly approval.
Bajram Rexhepi and Avni Kastrati who were responsible for the contracts did not want to comment on the case.

The representatives of the college said that they found out that the municipality gave the same land to DM company in February 2013.

They sued the municipality for this situation and asked for compensation. They also informed the donors that the construction of the college will be postponed due to property problems.

The representatives of the college also informed the Ministry Of Education as it is one of the donors, and asked from them to clarify this issue with the Mitrovica municipality.

Ram Buja said that they contacted the municipality and got the answer that he was not aware that this case is now a court case.

Dardan Shala from DM Company said that the situation created is threatening their whole project and they are preparing all the documents to sue the Mitrovica municipality.

Moreover the conflict of land property created between the international college of business and the DM Company is not the only one. Part of the land that was given to the college according to documents is not the municipality’s property and it belongs to the Directory of Water.

Safet Kamberi vice mayor of the Mitrovica municipality said that former executives of the municipalities are the only one who should be held accountable regarding this conflict

 

 

 

The first action took place at a Klina police station. When the police heard that a shooting took place, they immediately investigated the area.

The police raided the house. After the raid they only found a hunting rifle with an expired license. The father of the suspect was brought to the police station, while his son that was under suspicion was not present during the raid. A case was created against the suspect’s father.

The police told him to come to the police station. After being interrogated by the police, he was released free with an order from the prosecutor and the case is under investigation.

The program continues with an action of the police patrol in Prizren. During this action, several people who didn’t respect the traffic rules received penalties.

Another case in Prizren was about domestic violence. After an anonymous call reporting domestic violence, the patrol went to the house of the family. After investigating the location, they found out that the husband had beaten his wife. They were brought to the police station and the case is under investigation.

A conflict between two families that resulted in several wounded people from the same region is the next case. After arriving to the location, the police officers noticed that many people were wounded. They immediately asked for medical support to help the wounded people, and collected evidence from the location where the conflict happened.

At the end of the program police took more action by confiscating the hunting rifle from a person in Prizren that was using it to hunt without a license.

In this program, major stories of 2013 were broadcasted and investigated by “Justice in Kosovo”.

The first story was about buying of votes in the Pasjan Village where people showed how they were contacted by different parties, offering them money to get their vote.

After the program was aired, the police reported that they arrested a Serbian guy who was suspected for buying votes.

In some cases, Prizren announced the winners of the bid before the legal deadlines were fulfilled.

After the program was aired, Alban Susuri the head of Procurement Office of Prizren was arrested and is under investigation.

Elections in the Judicial Council of Kosovo where another story broadcasted, “Justice in Kosovo” followed the debate on the election process of the head of Judicial Council.

Sali Mekaj member of the Judicial Council sent a letter during the session of the Council when it was stated that the election process was followed with a lot of irregularities that make this process illegal.

Enver Peci head of the Judicial Council said that he has no comment on Sali Meka’s complaint, and that he respects the decision taken by all members of the Council announcing Meka’s complaint invalid. Enver Peci was elected head of the Judicial Council in this election.

The next story is about the massacre of Krusha Justice in Kosovo reported on March 2013 about the investigation on war crimes in the village of Krusha.

Cezary Michalczuk the prosecutor of EULEX said that they are in tight collaboration with the Prosecution Office in the Republic of Serbia to get more evidences, also with the Tribunal of Hague and after evaluating all the evidences they will release arrest warrant for suspected people.

“Justice in Kosovo” investigated the story of Medicus hospital who was under suspicion for organ trafficking

The trial of Bajrush Xhemali was another case that occurred in 2013.There was debate on the Judicial Council of Kosovo regarding the verdict for judgment released by the Constitutional Court. Valdete Daka judge in the Supreme Court said that after this action the Constitutional Court became a fourth instance court. Enver Peci head of the Judicial Council said that we cannot judge the verdicts of other courts, in this case it was the Constitutional court.

“Justice in Kosovo” also followed the case of the law for amnesty. On the list compiled by the correction service there are names of people who avoided taxes, charged for murder, etc.

Fejzullah Hasani Head of the Supreme Court said that the Amnesty law presents a lot of dilemmas in the way that it should be implemented, and the correction services sends in the list names of people that have done penal offenses that are not included in the categories defined in the law for amnesty.

In the last part, there is a case that showed how people under accusation escaped the police and changed their names. After reporting the case of Enver Aliu who changed his name in the Vit municipality after the Macedonian Police were searching for him, responsible institutions started monitoring the backgrounds of those who asked for name changes.

The program continues with police actions on the narco trafficking in Shkabaj village municipalities of Gjakova, Pishtina.

The invasion of the Prizren police station by only one person raises serious questions about the institution’s preparedness to deal with public security.Security experts told Justice in Kosovo that the police should increase the level of security around its premises.

The armed perpetrator, Shefki Hallaqi, known as “Sheki,” entered the police station “Alfa”in the early in the morning. He held hostage all the people within the station hostage.After shooting several times with his Kalashnikov inside the station, Hallaqi left without being stopped, even though 6 officials of the police were inside the station.

After the policemen couldn’t manage to stop him, he decided to surrender himself the next day, and was detained.This incident raised many question regarding the level of security of Police institutions.

Security expert Nuredin Ibishi said that police should take immediate precautions to prevent such incidents.
According him, at the same time that Kosovo Police is involved in the war against terrorism and organized crime, they should also focus on improving security measures.

“A special law should be passed specifying particular measures for the security of objects of particular relevance” said Ibishi.
But according Ibishi, until the release of this special law, Kosovo Police should take immediate precautions to avoid the risk of another episode like the one in Prizren.

“The policeman that will be appointed to protect the objects should be well prepared and properly equipped,” he added.
But Kosovo Police, besides suspending the 6 police officials who didn’t manage to control the armed assailant, has not taken any other security measures.

This was confirmed by the vice director of the police, Naim Rexha, who told Justice in Kosovo that the measurements taken regarding this case were suspending the 6 police officials that were working that day. Rexha maintains that no further measures are needed.

Minister of Defense Bajram Rexhepi the public prosecutor is responsible for the security breach, because one night before the attack, he had been handcuffed.
Hallaqi had been arrested 10 times before that, suspected for penal offenses, attacking officials, and causing minor bodily harm.

According official records, several hours before attacking the police station Hallaqi was intoxicated and arrested after having destroyed a telephone booth in the center of Prizren. However, he was released by an order from the prosecution.

However Metush Biraj, head of the prosecution of Prizren said that the custody prosecutor was not aware of the fact that the Hallaqi had prior criminal records.

Also according Biraj the suspect was released after the police communicated with the prosecutor saying that this person didn’t present any risk if he is left to go home drunk.

But facts are showing something else, the report of the prosecutor Beqe Shala doesn’t match with the report of the police Hajredin Braha.
In a report provided from Justice in Kosovo, it’s obvious that policeman Hajredin Braha emphasized firmly on his official report that he made known to the prosecutor Beqe Shala that the arrested person Shefki Hallaqi was a recidivist.

However, according officials of prosecution and police will be impossible to verify which the truth of this case was because the phone call between the prosecutor and the police is not recorded.