Judgment of Corruption Pressed Against Paul Lekat and Others

At the request of the special prosecutor, At and Dema, the initial hearing has been postponed to be held Monday at the Constitutional Court in Gjakova, in the case where former head of Gjakova, Pal Lekaj, and others are accused of criminal acts related to corruption.

Former head of the Gjakova municipality, Pal Lekaj is being accused of misusing the official position, for the time being at the helm of this municipality.

Along with Lekane, for misuse of office, Ismet Isufi and Gani Rama are also charged, while subsidies and tax frauds are being charged with Veli Hajdaraga, reports the “Justice bet”.

The chairman of the court, Judge Shacir Zika, said he has accepted a parachute from the special prosecutor, Father and Dema, by which the same has demanded that this session be postponed, as he has to travel abroad, respectively, to Austria.

Judge Zika, said all sides have been announced to postpone Monday's hearing and December 17th and 18th sessions, and that the next sessions are scheduled to be held on December 23rd and 24th, by 10:00.

Otherwise, in August of this year the subject of accused Guni Rama was joined by Paul Lekat and others following the proposal that the special prosecutor, Father and Dema had proposed that these two subjects join the argument that these issues are the same and related.

This is the second time the case against the accused Rama has turned into retrial, after the Constitutional Court in Gjakova had twice acquitted him of the prosecution.

The Constitutional Court in Gjakova on February 13th 2017 had acquitted the accused Rama, arguing that he has failed to prove that he has committed the criminal act for which he is charged.

However, following the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's complaint, the Court of Appeals had turned the case against accused Rama into retrial.

After his retrial, the Constitutional Court in Gjakova, with the act of February 9, 2018, had again cleared the accused Rama, arguing that he had failed to prove that he committed the criminal act for which he was charged.

However, then, the Court of Appeals on November 1, 2018, has turned the case back into retrial, thus approval of the special prosecutor's complaint of the Republic of Kosovo.

Under the ruling of the Court of Appeals, the Constitutional Court Act in Gjakova was involved in essential violations of criminal procedure provisions.

Apelt is said to have strongly based the first degree court on the financial expert's opinion, but according to Appeals, the expert has not given clear and concrete opinion about the position he held and the competencies that the accused Rama has exercised.

According to the Special Prosecutor's Act of the Republic of Kosovo, founded on May 26, 2016, Gani Rama is being charged with criminal activity “the misuse of official position or authority”.

According to the indictment, during the 2008 period of 2012, Gani Rama, in the quality of the official, financial person in the Gjakova municipality, with the aim of benefiting wealth for himself or for the other person, or to cause harm to the other person, had allowed the adoption and approval of monetary means.

According to the indictment, this was about payments to business “DPT Union-VL”, owner of Veli Hajdaraga, for the distribution of subsidies without any procedures, no contracts, and no regular bills.

According to the prosecution, the misused amount is supposed to be 218,956.67 euros.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Prosecution of Paul Lekaj and others had filed it on April 10, 2016.

Before the indictment was partially dismissed, Paul Lekaj along with Ismet Isufin, Easter Syla, Bekim Syla, Teuta Mayzin and Dafina Thacin are charged that acting as officers of the Gjakova municipality have misused their official positions during the distribution of subsidies.

Paul Lekaj and Ismet Isufi are charged that during the 2008-2014 period, acting in the quality of official persons, the first in the quality of Gjakova municipality chairman, while the second as director of the Directorate for Agriculture, have distributed subsidies through the company “U n NION-VL”, contrary to the Public Finance Management Law.

The decisions issued by the defendant Paul Lekaj cover only the amount of 235.400 euros, while other decisions do not have any kind of legal grounds amounting to the amount of 631.671.82 euros”, said among other things in the indictment.

Under the indictment, subsidies were authorised by the accused without supervision if the payments were made to farmers and having no contract with the company “U n NION-VL” with c. 40% of the over three thousand farmers have not even accepted payments that have been authorized to them.

Always according to the indictment, the accused has also passed legal competencies, because in addition to the funding for subsidies, those for subsidies have used other budgetary lines of the Gjakova municipality, causing it a possible damage of up to 250 thousand euros.

While defendants Pask Syla, Bekim Syla, Teuta Mayzini and Dafina Thaqi are charged that being in the quality of the chairmans and commission members for monitoring the distribution of subsidies, have compiled reports that if the distribution of subsidies has been done properly, though about 40% of the applicants have not accepted subsidies.

The six defendants are charged with these actions, at different times between 2008 and 2014, have consistently committed criminal acts of embezzlement during the exercise of office and misuse of official office or authority.

In this case, Veli Hajdaraga, who, according to the prosecution body, during the 2008-2015 period, has provided inaccurate information that if all the subsidies applicants have accepted subsidies and that he has allowed farmers who were on the list to receive subsidies to receive persons who were not right.

Indictee Hajdaraga, in addition to the criminal act of subsidies fraud, is also charged with avoiding tax duties of about 35 thousand euros, because according to the prosecution, he, with the intent to avoid paying taxes, has declared less income than those in reality for his company, “U n NION-VL”

The Special Prosecutor in the indictment has indicated that the number of farmers who had to be interviewed is over three thousand, so with a number of respondents it has been won the trend that 40% of the subsidies beneficiaries have not accepted them at all.

So the exact amount of damage caused by the farmers interviewed is, according to the indictment, about 70 thousand euros.

Otherwise, the Court of Appeals, in March 2019, had left the Constitutional Court Act in Gjakova, to take on January 10, 2019, which had confirmed the indictment filed by the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSKR), with which the indictment, Lekaj and Isufi are accused of misuse of office, while Hajdaraga for fraud in subsidies and tax evasion.

“The Court of Appeals, like the first degree court, considers there are no legal conditions for dropping the indictment and that evidence attached to it on the prosecution's side is acceptable. Their stability will be proven at the main review hearing, while in this phase of the criminal procedure guilt cannot be assumed either by the tribunal or by the parties”, the Appeals Community said.

Similarly, the Court of Appeals had rejected both the prosecution's complaint and the prosecution's complaint in the report to the other indictees, Pask Syla, Bekim Syla, Teuta Mayzini, Dafina Thaqi, who were charged with the criminal act of misuse of office, to which the first scale had rejected the indictment.

Otherwise, even in November 2018, the Court of Appeals had decided on the defenders ' complaints in this case.

Thus, Appeals had restored the case to Lekat and others in the criminal act of misusing the official position, for which point the Constitutional Court in Gjakova had confirmed the indictment.

According to Apel's assessment, the first-instance court has not provided sufficient reason when it confirmed the criminal offence of the position against the accused and refused their defenders' complaints.

As for the other work of malpractice, for which the Foundation had also thrown this point of act, Apel had confirmed the same.

Former head of the Gjakova municipality and currently Minister of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Paul Lekaj and the others had been declared innocent of all points of the indictment at the initial review session held on May 31st of 2018. /Betimi justice