5 hours agoWill the Special Court also handle the Medicus case?
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)Co-operation between Kosovo and international justice has been pursued by a series of failures and scandals. It has been two decades since international actors changed during efforts to build a strong judicial system. The results are minimal. This is the idea to be created by the claims of an American judge who worked for Eulex in Kosovo, [...]
Co-operation between Kosovo and international justice has been pursued by a series of failures and scandals. It has been two decades since international actors changed during efforts to build a strong judicial system.
The results are minimal. This is the idea to be created by the claims of an American judge who worked for Eulex in Kosovo from 2011 to 2013.
Judge Dean B. Pineles, handed out sentences of eight to five years to the owner of the private Medicus clinic, Lutfi Dervisi, his son, and an anesthesiologist in 2013. This was the world's first punishment against doctors in matters of this nature, Pineles wrote. Now he thinks the process is entering the deadlock of the institutions.
Crime was discovered when in November 2008, a 23-year-old Turkish boy, Yilman Eric, lost consciousness at Pristina airport. The rescue forces discovered the fresh stitches made after an operation. Eric claimed he had a kidney taken from the Medicus Clinic. At the clinic the police found Israeli Bezalel Shaphan, who was also freshly sewn - he had picked up Eric's kidney.
Shaphan had paid 90,000 euros, Eric had received 15,000 euros. Eulex took over the investigation and discovered this business model: through a Turkish mediator, physician Yusuf Sonmez, there were organ donors in Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan who sold their organs to the Medicus clinic. They were placed on wealthy patients from Israel, Canada, the US, Germany and Poland. Rich people with kidneys were found by Moshe Harel, an Israelite businessman. By 2008, 30 operations had been conducted.
Justice Produces Endless Issues
Since mediators were not accessible, investigations focused on Kosovars. The process was done at great expense. 70 witnesses were called, many of them from the countries where the <x0). After 19 months of trial, the three-member court -- two foreigners and one Kosovo -- unanimously said the sentence. The convicts appealed, but this was rejected by both instances in November 2015 and September 2016. The last possibility remained complaints at the Supreme Court. And she brought the turn. For unknown reasons, international prosecutors handed the case to Kosovo justice. This called the sentence invalid for formal shortcomings, and turned the process back to the first instance.
Kosovo justice stands before a mountain of unprecedented processes. Therefore, optimists say, the Kosovo Special Chamber exists, which deals with organ trade among others. Swiss lawyer Dick Marty, at the time reporter at the Council of Europe, had charged in 2010 in a report that drew much public attention that parts of the KLA had been seized from imprisoned Serbs and sold them. The report, which leaves many unanswered questions, also refers to the Medicus Clinic. There the organ trade has continued to take place, which had begun since years of war by KLA exhibits. Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, as chief of the Drenica group, also plays a key role in the report.
Suspects Play With Time
Anyone who saw the Western reaction at the time is disappointed today. Under Eulex, an investigative commission was established under the direction of American Clinton Williams, who concluded in 2014 that “in many cases” cannot be filed for organ trading. A year passed until Kosovo's parliament voluntarily approved the establishment of the Special Chamber. This is a Kosovo institution, but for security reasons it has headquarters at The Hague. Why four years went by without raising any charges, it is unclear. Judge Pintelles speaks of a “Spirit Judge” and points out that in this process based on witness claims, in time it will become less and less possible to prove the crime where there is no play.
The Special Chamber gives no indication when the prosecution is supposed to be charged. Increased pressure from the US and EU, however, prompted Thaci's group not to bring the tribunal out of the picture by amending the law in December. And those who are very optimistic appreciate the appointment of the new prosecutor as a good sign. Since the workplace was not extended by the American Foreign Ministry, David Schwendiman had to resign without his will at the end of March.
American Jack Smith, who from 2008 through 2010 was the war crimes tribunal at The Hague International (ICC), now takes over this task. The question now posed is how long will it last until Smith knows the case and raises the indictment.
