Former Urology director sentenced to prison, fines charged with bribery

The Court of Appeals has enacted sentence pronounced in effective prison and fines, against the former director of the Urology Department at the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo (QKUK), Rexhep Kasumaj, who was accused of taking bribes.

The Constitutional Court in Pristina on February 7th 2019, Kasumaj had convicted him of the criminal offence to bribe, and had tried the same with nine months in prison and 2,000 euros in fines.

Similarly, in the initial review held on February 4th, 2019, Kasumaj had pleaded guilty to the criminal offense he was charged with.

Despite admitting guilt, the defence had remained dissatisfied with the extent of the pronounced sentence.

In the complaint exercised in Apel by Kasumaj's defender, lawyer Merita Stublla said the conviction pronounced against her defender is very severe, and, according to her, if the extenuating circumstances were taken into account, a milder sentence would have to be pronounced against Kasumaj.

These extenuating circumstances, which the lawyer mentioned in her complaint were, the fact that her defender had pleaded guilty, is of the age postponed because she was not previously condemned as well as of being before retirement.

The accused himself at the hearing of his complaint on June 28th of this year, had said that the work he had performed had been a moment of wickedness that could happen to anyone in life.

There's been a moment of evil that can happen to every person once in a lifetime. During my long professional period, I've never been in conflict with law”, Kasumaj had declared.

However, these defence claims have dismissed them as groundless, the college of the Court of Appeals, composed of judges, Fillim Scoro, Dzevdet Abazi and Tonka Berishaj, reports “Justice Bett”.

According to the Appeals Court's assessment, the first-degree court, on the case of pronouncing the defendant's sentence, fully and all of it has assessed all the circumstances, where as extenuating circumstances the accused has received that he was not convicted before, against him there is no other criminal procedure, that he has promised that in the future he will not perform another criminal act, has admitted guilt, and that the accused is old age.

These circumstances that the first - degree court had considered have also approved of Appeals, in view of the act of Appeals, even the circumstances involved in the way a criminal offense was committed and the weight of risking the protected value, especially the high degree of will.

Therefore, given the above statement, the claims highlighted in the complaint by the defendant's defenders are not of the nature that would further reduce the sentence, because some of them are taken into account by the court of the first degree, while some of the alleged circumstances are not of the nature to influence the further smoothing of the sentence, as we consider the sentence pronounced by the court of first and the minimum legal, is right and legal. ”, said in the Appeals Act.

The reasoning of the Appeals Act also states that the accused had been pronounced a supplementary sentence, the seizure of a weapon with which he committed criminal acts, despite that neither in the indictment nor in the act of first-instinct, is mentioned at all that the convicted has now possessed any weapon or has been charged with illegal weapons.

The accused has also pronounced the additional punishment and seizure of the brand “fireplayer weapon. Ecol Firat Compact” of the 9 m.m. and 16 (16) calibre of the same kind, as a means of criminal action.”, says the reasoning of Apel's bias.

Otherwise, according to the indictment set up on November 30, 2018, Rexhep Kasumaj is charged with taking 100 euros in bribes from the damaged Bekim Hoti, the director of the Urology Department at QKUKU, deliberately and deliberately and with the intention of illegal gain, and has accepted 100 euros in bribes from his nephew F. H, access the operating list in an accelerated manner.

The indictment points out that under measures of simulation of corruption criminal acts, the injured entered the Urology Department and the defendant's office now handed over the required money, where the same were later found in Kasumaj's pocket and seized by police investigator and immediately arrested.