Amnesty Law

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Kosovo Correcting Service, which is supervised by the Ministry of Justice, submitted to the Basic Courts a list with the names of approximately 350 prisoners who will benefit from the Amnesty Law.

The list is comprised of the names of large number of individuals sentenced, accused and being investigated. However, the heads of the judicial system in Kosovo expect to exempt only a small number of persons on the list. Part of this list is also Enver Sekiraqa, Faton Hajrizi, Nazmi Mustafi, Zarko Veselinovic. Included in the list are also the criminals sentenced for triple murder and for hiding illegal weapons.

“If a person has conducted only one criminal act which is included in the amnesty, then  person is included also in the list. However, the court will decide if the person benefits from the amnesty or not”, said the Deputy Minister of Justice, Daut Xhemajli.

According to Xhemajli, the reason why they are included in the list is the fact that apart from other crimes they have also committed a crime that is included on the list, such as holding illegal weapons.

From this list, only a small number of prisoners will benefit from the Amnesty Law, therefore the drafting of this list has been a rushed decision” said the head of Basic Court of Prishtina, Hamdi Ibrahimi.

According to Ibrahimi, this law will only benefit the persons who have committed a criminal act such as call to resistance.

On the other hand, the head of the Supreme Court, Fejzullah Hasani, thinks that the drafting of this list came as a result of misinterpretations in the law.

The Amnesty Law was criticized by the organizations of the civil society and the opposition members of the parliament. As a result, the opposition and the civil society protested for several days in order to influence and put pressure on the Kosovo Assembly to be more vigilant and not make a rushed decision. However, on November 3, 2013, the Constitutional Court decided that except some articles the law is in compliance with the Kosovo Constitution. 

The Amnesty Law benefits people on three cases: those who have committed criminal acts against the constitutional order, those who called for resistance, and the hooligans.

For instance, if a person did not pay the taxes as a result of not recognizing the state institutions, then that is considered as a call for resistance.

All the persons who have been sentenced and escaped from the prison will not benefit from the Amnesty Law.