Special Court to Deal With Material Exchange of War Victims

Specialised chambers are part of Kosovo's justice system, but their headquarters is in The Hague, and represent the Court, which will only prosecute criminal acts “crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes by Kosovo laws concerning claims by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly report on January 7th 2011, which includes serious violations of international law”, Tanjug reports.

Anyone who gets the victim's status decides the court, while all persons considered injured will be able to ask the court for the status of the victim only after the publication of confirmed charges, which should be submitted to the Special Prosecutor's Office, David Schöndemann.

According to the Court's rules, the status of the victims in the procedure may require any physical person who believes that he personally suffered physically, materially, or mental harm as a direct result of the criminal act by the confirmed indictment.

The court says that a person who wants to qualify as a victim should provide sufficient evidence of the damage he has suffered.

The requests for the victim's status, applicants will have to offer service for the victims' participation before the trial begins, the court's announcement said, but does not specify how long before the trial.

Victims who have been admitted to participate in the process, depending on the court's decision, will form one or more groups, while a representative appointed by the Court Secretary will represent the court court.

The representative will be tasked with regularly informing the victims of developments in the procedure, can seek to express their views and highlight the procedure-related problems, and inform the judge about it, Telegrafi submits. During the presentation, he can attend the hearing and present oral and written statements and question witnesses when the Court estimates that this requires the protection of personal interests and the rights of the victims.

Also, the victim's representative can decide to have access to materials needed to represent a group of victims, is right in his statement at the opening and closing of the judicial process, and ask that the Judiciary Chamber issue a warrant to present evidence and to be heard as to the consequences of crimes committed against the victims, if these aspects were not presented adequate during the procedure.

After the completion of the trial process, the court could bring a verdict regarding the compensation of damage, loss or damage suffered by the victim and which could be the basis for determining compensation”, the court said.

This means that the Specialised Chambers will not determine the amount of compensation for the damage, but the act will be the basis for submitting the request for compensation.

Victims before the court could only represent authorised representatives who are registered in the court file, those who in the pre-term are presented and meet the conditions for registration, respectively.

The competition for the presentation of the defence attorney and a lawyer, who will protect indictees in the future, has been announced on November 6th this year.

The Special Court will handle war crimes charges committed in Kosovo from 1998 to 2000.