Pandemia slows trial of war crimes, fewer court hearings held

Legal analyst at the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Pristina, Amer Alija, says the number of court hearings has been significantly reduced this year compared to the previous years as a result of pandemic.

“Yes, both in all cases and in war crimes cases the pandemic has slowed down so much for reasons that most of these people who are tried for war crimes are in custody and especially since the beginning of the pandemic there have been very few sessions or all been cancelled”.

“S recently these last two months have been intensively holding sessions and or there are cases when any members of the trial group have been infected and hearings are being postponed, only in terms of war crimes hearings, from March to November, about 30 to 35 war crimes hearings have been held in Kosovo. We monitor war crimes since the end of the war and there have been over 150 sessions a year now we have fewer and I believe that there has been even more reduction in the number of sessions”, Alija said.

In addition, courts in Kosovo are facing a small number of prosecutors. According to Alijaj, there are huge shortages of support staff.

So from June 2018 and here we have local prosecution and local judiciary dealing with the investigation and trial of war crimes in Kosovo. As for the capacities of whether these criminal acts have been sufficiently engaged, I think the number is too small of prosecutors committed especially to support staff we lack of war crimes analysts for reasons that these criminal acts are too volumey, a big commitment is required to have a small outcome because cases and crimes that have occurred 20 years ago have so far passed a long time and often have issued statements near the EULEX mission, UNMIK even the memory of witnesses fades”, he said.

Also, Alija has stressed another problem with bringing people living in Serbia to justice in Kosovo, saying the code of criminal procedure for insufficient judgments has not been adapted to the practical and actual situation in the country.

The code of criminal procedure has been changed or added to a device where it allows for investigation and trial in absence, but this change in my opinion has not been adapted to the practical situation or the facts for the reasons that in this change some conditions have been envisioned, where at least five times the invitation is sent to the person who is suspected and who lives in Serbia and on the other hand we don't have the international judicial agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, it's hard to implement how I will go five times to the person at the address of the house if we don't have any co-operation, the economy said.

I've heard that this law is now changing once again for misjudgment, and I believe that when the new criminal procedure code is released, this change will eliminate these difficulties”, Alija added.
Two decades after the end of the last war, for war crimes in Kosovo, the local, Serbian judiciary, including international missions, has been sentenced to 66 people.

“If we take Kosovo, Serbia, The Hague and Montenegro, where we had two cases, 66 people have been sentenced to total. As for Serbia and Kosovo, we have 40 people sentenced in Kosovo, while in Serbia 17 persons”, Amer Alija said.