End of hearing, judge makes his decision in the case of Uncle

The protection of the former PDK delegation, Azem Syla and other indictees in the case “Toka”, has the deadline until Friday this week to submit written requests for exemption from this judicial process of new court member Vladimir Micula.

This was decided during the session, which was held by closed doors, as the Constitutional Court in Pristina had previously closed to the public the session of Azem Syla and others, who are accused of various criminal acts linked to organised crime.

He has made it known for “Justice Vow”, lawyer Bajram Tmava, defender of accused Nurtane Brajshori.

The next session is scheduled for February 1st of this year.

Initially, the proposal for closing this court session has made it the defender of former PDK delegation Azem Syla, lawyer Besnik Berisha, and who has since been approved by the court.

Reasoning this proposal has been a discussion to exclude court member Vladimir Micula, who was recently appointed by EULEX and who is also the judge at the Special Court.

At Wednesday's session, the court's composition has been changed, where the head of the court instead of Arkadius Sedec will be Petko Petkov, while local judge Nora Blace has been replaced by Judge Vesel Ismajli, while the body's member is Vladimir Micula.

In this session, it is expected to be decided whether the judicial process will return to zero or continue with the main review.

Lawyer Berisha has said that EULEX-turned court judge Vladimir Micula last week is also a judge at the Special Court, and that they are not sure that he will be present at any session, if he starts work soon as a Special Court.

Berisha also said this process relates to the conclusion of EULEX's mission, at the end of June of this year, and that, according to him, will affect the process to go into rapid procedure, while added that justice should not be linked to political missions.

Prosecutor Danilo Ceccareli has said that there is no legal barrier in the fact that Milela is the Special Court's court and, according to him, there is no obstacle associated with the EULEX mission's deadline.

The prosecutor demanded that the court set the main screening dates for the months of April and May of this year.

After reviewing this closed-door issue, Wednesday's session has been postponed for 1 February of this year.

Otherwise, after the initial review of December 12,13 and 15, 2016, in which Azem Syla and others had been declared innocent, it was presumption for the trial to begin after more than a year, specifically on January 9, 2018.

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018, although all parties had come to court, the trial had not begun, since the chairman of the court, Judge Arcadius Sedec, had declared that the court is not in complete composition.

He had said that to complete the court has applied to the Kosovo Judiciary Council, to allow court member in this case to be Judge Nora Blace, now transferred to the Court of Appeals.

According to Judge Sedec, the reasonableness of this request was not to repeat the testimony of two protected witnesses who were taken in the procedure of special investigative opportunity in 2016, before the indictment was established, in which court college procedure was attended by Judge Blace.

The Code of Criminal Procedure envisions that in cases where the procedure of special investigative opportunity has been developed, so that evidence taken in that procedure can be applied in judicial examination, one of the college members of special investigative opportunity must also be a member of the panel in judicial examination.

EULEX, without expecting the answer from the Kosovo Judiciary Council, has withdrawn the request for Blace's return to the court's court and has appointed EULEX Judge Vladimir Miula, as a member of the panel, who along with Blace was part of the college of special investigative opportunity.

Otherwise, on April 30th 2014, the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) had issued a decision to initiate investigations into the 12 indictees -- Azem Syla, Shaban Syla, Ila, Mela Ila, Medjid Syla, Arton Vila, Ferretin Gashi, Shpresim Uka, Nuhi Uka, Shqie Maxu, Edward Gashi, Sabedin Hadziu and Hajrullah Berisha.

In April and June 2015, as well as in March and April 2016, the investigation had been expanded, including Avni Maxhun and Ljubosha Vujovic.

The Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) has filed two charges, one with 17 people and the other with 22 persons, including the former delegation of PDK Azem Syla, who according to the SPRK, had also been leader of this group.

The instance charges the defendants with criminal acts “organised”, “money laundering”, “receive mics”, “heavy malming”, “duty “, “reference to counterlegal judicial decisions”, “The bad use of the official post”, <x14delegisation of the counterfeit context <x> and <x16166>

The defendants are also charged that, in co-operation, through criminal activities, they have deprived Kosovo of social property, including forging official decisions and documents, fraud and other corrupt actions.

Investigations in this case were made even in co-operation with Belgrade's High Prosecutor for Organised Crime

Otherwise, on December 12,13 and 15, 2016, initial sessions were held, in which Azem Syla and others were declared innocent of the criminal acts they are charged with.

After initial hearings, the defence within the 30-day deadline had submitted their objections to the evidence and requirements for dropping the indictment.

The chairman of the court, Judge Arkadius Sedec, after accepting defence objections, had refused the same, and on April 4, 2017, he had confirmed the indictment on the first scale.

The defence had continued to demand the collapse of the prosecution's indictment, addressing the Court of Appeals, following the court's decision to confirm the indictment, which it has considered an unfair decision.

The Court of Appeals, on October 26, 2017, has issued a ruling with which he confirmed the first - degree decision and thus put the Special Prosecutor's Act of October 24, 2016. /Justice Trust/