Unprosecuted Accident

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On July 7, 2013, “Justice in Kosovo” discussed unprosecuted accidents.

In 2005, how did Endrit Suka from Bllaca, near Suhareka, die while he was playing with his friends? Who was the truck driver who hit the 8-year-old boy? What was his mother, Fatime Suka’s reaction after she received the news that her son was dead? Why hasn’t this case been solved eight years later? Why were the investigations for this case stopped? What does the prosecutor of Basic Prosecution in Prizren say? Why, according to the representative of the injured party, were investigations dropped without the police and a medical examiner’s report? What were the recommendations of a report by the Ombudsperson? Why did the Ombudsperson request to start the investigations about three justice officials in this case? What does the head of Prosecution’s Disciplinary Office say?

On March 25, 2005, Endrit Suka lost his life as a result of an accident while he was playing in his neighborhood, in the village Bllaca, Suharekë. As soon as he got home he ate and went out to play with some friends. “After 30 minutes they told me that my son was dead,” said Fatime Suka.

The suspected perpetrator of the accident is Dritant Derguti, from Rahovec. Derguti said that while he was driving he saw a young boy lying in the street and he was around 70 meters behind: “I did not notice anything. 60- 70 meters after I stopped and I saw the dead body on the left side of the road. I don’t believe that I was the one who hit the eight-year-old boy.

After the accident, Durguti was detained for 22 days. After the detention, the prosecutor of this case, Hashim Çollaku, who at the time was the Prosecutor of the District Prosecution in Prizren, decided to close the investigations related to this case.

The Suka family claims that they were never informed about the investigation closing and that the prosecution had no right to stop the investigations. The lawyer of the injured party, Sabrie Sylaj, explained that “There was no report released by the police or forensic medicine. The investigations were stopped only based on one witness and the traffic expert’s expertise.” Based on the penal procedure, all the evidence should be taken into consideration such as the police report and the forensic medicine report.

Sylaj claims that she did not see the police report or forensic medicine report, and neither did the Suka family. Current head prosecutor Hoxha claims that the Suka family received the notification regarding the closure of the investigation: “We have evidence that the Suka family has received the notification, but later we found out that Endrit’s father was sick at that time,” said Hoxha.

Since Fatime Suka lost her right to complain because the notification was submitted to an individual in poor health, the Basic Prosecution in Prizren Endrit’s mother another chance.  However, even the second chance was not successful because the head prosecutor, Sylë Hoxha, had wrongly guided Fatime Suka to press charges in the Municipality Court of Prizren.

The head of the Basic Court in Prizren, Ymer Hoxha, says that the Municipality Court of Suhareka was obliged to delegate the case to the District Court of Prizren. After all these procedures, the Suka family exceeded all the legal deadlines to ask for justice regarding their son’s death. However, Fatime Suka was not ready to give up, and she decided to address the Ombudsperson, Sami Kurteshi. Now, Kurteshi asked to recommence the investigation.

Based on the data of Kosovo Judicial Council, in 2012 the court treated around 8,000 cases concerning dangerous traffic conditions. 3349 were resolved, whereas 4613 were left unresolved.

Justice in Kosovo also prepared a short report about inheritance review through notaries.

This has made it possible for citizens to win the right on their inherited cases in less than one hour. Citizens previously had to wait for months before their cases were looked at due to the overload of court cases.

Arbena Shehu, head of Kosovo Notary Chamber, explained: “The notary reviews the inheritance faster than the court.”