Confiscating illegal property challenges Judiciary's determination

Confiscating illegal property acquired through criminal activities is almost impossible under current circumstances, say representatives of organisations monitoring the work of Kosovo's justice system.

Recently, some changes in legislation have been made regarding the seizure of illegal property. The amendments are made in the Penal Code as well as the Law for extensive competencies for the seizure of property acquired by criminal acts.

Betim Musliu, director of the Kosovo Institute for Justice, tells Radio Free Europe that the justice system has failed in confiscating illegal property acquired by criminal activities.

“Based on systematic monitoring conducted by the Kosovo Institute for Justice in the justice system, results in the struggle to seize illegal property acquired through criminal activities, almost failed. In each case, prosecutors are reluctant to file demands for seizures and seizures of assets, and this is one of the ways crime is not actually fought because crime is actually fought by confiscated the property of all persons involved in criminal activities”, Musliu says.

Days ago at a meeting with the Kosovo Lawyers' Oda, Justice Minister in the Government of Kosovo, Abelard Tahiri, has said no one will be able to profit illegally and no one will be able to use property acquired by criminals.

According to him, society in Kosovo is suffering from inequality, loss of trust in institutions and the country's bad image, until crime-made means remain available to organised crime activists.

To overcome this challenge of the justice system, we have made substantial changes in legislation, initiated by the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the new Law for extensive competencies for the seizure of property acquired by criminal acts, enabling law enforcement organisations, the severity of measures against such phenomena”, Tahiri has declared.

However, Betim Musliu points out that even before these new legislative standards, there has been legislation needed to seize illegal property acquired through criminal activities.

There have never been any legal obstacles to effective combat in the direction of confiscating illegal property. What has been missing and missing is the implementation of provisions on the part of prosecutors and judges. Prosecutors have been summoned to legal provisions which, as they claim, have not been too adequate to make the seizure of property acquired through criminal activities, but that it has been a bluff, which is constantly present in public to justify the lack of results in combating the seizure of illegal property created by illegal activities”, Musliu says.

The possibility of confiscating illegal property, even according to independent MP Korab Sejdiu, a member of the Commission for Legislation in the Assembly of Kosovo, has existed, but with the newest legislative norms, he adds, has reinforced the possibility of confiscating this illegal property.

The big disaster is that much of the property illegally acquired in Kosovo is in the hands of powerful people, and the result has lacked the will for these persons to be prosecuted and, as a result, there was no way that their property could be confiscated”.

The question of illegally seized property seizure is linked to having a justice system, which is functional and due to lack of political will, such a system is lacking. And as long as we don't invest in that direction, then we'll face such situations when you have legal grounds, but that doesn't apply”, Free Europe MP Sejdiu tells Radio.

In contrast, with the new Law on Expanding Capacity, the number of criminal acts for which seizures are worth more has been added. It has expanded the seizure not only for the defendant but also for the third parties.

Under the new law, the prosecutor must testify that the property listed for verification is the property of the defendant, while the defendant must testify that he has acquired that property with legitimate resources for which he must offer evidence, on the contrary, it is confiscated by the Court.