What do those who have been kept in detention without any reason have to say? How much money is given to compensate one day in detention? What do justice officials say about unfound detention orders?
Why, according to the president of the supreme court of Kosovo, are judges not careful in issuing detention orders?
On the second part of the program Justice in Kosovo discussed new judges, who risk to be removed from the judicial system since they are also engaged as notaries.
The program begun with the head of Supreme Court, Fejzullah Hasani, who said that Kosovo has became a state of unfounded detention orders.
Mr. Hasani said that Croatian judges approve 25 percent of applications of prosecutions for detentions, while in Kosovo these applications are approved about 90 percent. Only during this year, Kosovo Judicial Council – KJC has paid 135 thousands euro for compensation of 71 persons who have been in detention and who then have been acquitted. A doctor from “Medicus case” required 450 thousands euro for compensation.
Justice in Kosovo showed that KJC is likely to lose millions of euro due to claims being raised by citizens who are held in detention and later the same have been acquitted.
A commission formed within KJC has offered compensation for those people who have been damaged as a result of staying in detention. For one day staying of in detention this commission decided to pay from 6 to 25 euro compensation.
Dissatisfied with the assessment of the damage, some people started to sue KJC in order to increase the amount of compensations – said the report of Justice in Kosovo.
The program also touched base on the case of Rexhep Ibishi who was held in detention prison from December 14, for five consecutive months with allegations that he was smuggling cigarettes. Also, his goods value of 200 thousands euro had been confiscated.
After five months he was released and had pleaded not guilty from the municipal court in Gjilan as well as from Supreme Court.
“For five months of my detention they offered me 2.200 euro compensation,” Mr. Ibishi said.
Dissatisfied with this decision, he filed two lawsuits against Kosovo Judicial Council in Prishtina. The first one was for compensation of moral damage and the second one for compensation of goods, a part of which, according to Mr. Ibishi has been destroyed while he was staying in detention.
Ten years after Mr. Ibishi was detained, Prishtina Municipal Court decided for his first lawsuit. This court in September 2013 decided to increase the amount of compensation of damages from 2, 200 euro to 10, 000 euro.
He claimed that he has received this amount of money and that he is expecting to solve the second lawsuit – the compensation of his goods, which reaches a value of 170, 000 euro.
Another person waiting for compensation for a similar kind of case is is Tunë Pervorfaj – who was arrested in 2008 along with other doctors in the affair known as “Medicus Case”.
Mr. Pervorfaj had been detained for a month and after investigations by the prosecutor he was acquitted.
The lawyer of Prevorfaj, Nikë Shala, told Justice in Kosovo that for the duration of time while his client was detained the KJC offered 530 euro. “We have refused this offer of KJC and for this we filed a lawsuit in the municipal court, with which we have sought compensation for material and moral damage in amount of 450, 000euro,” said Mr. Shala.
Such lawsuits and many other that may come in the future in KJC have prompted leaders of the judiciary to ask judges to be more vigilant when assigning detentions.
This requirement was addressed to the judges in a conference which was organized by KJC away from public eye.
Similarly, during the conference the head of Supreme Court – Fejzulla Hasani as well as the head of KJC Enver Peci reiterated that judges should take extra care and be much more attentive when assigning detention measures.
Mr. Hasani said the most of requirements of prosecutors for ordering detention are approved by the courts.
“Based on the data we have, over 90 percent of prosecutors’ requests for detention are approved. That’s why I can say we have transformed into a state of detentions,” said the head of Supreme Court.
Mr. Peci also said that this trend of detention procedures is not normal. Judges who make the final decision for detention, according to Mr. Peci, do not make the necessary evaluation whether the taken measures are required to ensure the presence of the suspect in the procedure.
Henceforth, the judges will monitor more the decisions on the detention measures, Peci added, claiming that the assessment of the work of judges can get negative due to the large number of unfounded detention orders.