War crimes perpetrators cannot be punished for more than 20 years, family members seek life imprisonment

Pristina's Constitutional Court has sentenced it to the maximum sentence of 20 years, Goran Stanisic, after being found guilty of killing 13 civilians in Slovenian, Lipjan, during the last war in Kosovo. But that sentence sparked a lot of reaction, even family members of missing persons in Kosovo say those sentences are being offended and require that Serb criminals who committed crimes during the war be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Ehat Miftaraj of the Kosovo Institute for Justice tells Kosovapress that by 2000, the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia had seen life and death sentences, but after the war this rule was changed by internationals, so those accused of war crimes in Kosovo cannot be punished more than 20 years in prison.

Miftaraj added that favourable law is always applied to the accused, so the justice system in Kosovo cannot do anything in terms of increasing condemnation beyond what is defined in the laws of the day.

Miftarian: Courts can't pronounce sentences higher than 20 years

“In 1999, the special representative of the UN secretary-general at the time when there was legislative competence had adopted a regulation through which the sentence of life imprisonment had been abolished and the death penalty that had been in effect by the time criminal acts were committed in 1999 and the abolition of these sentences then the maximum penalty that could be handed down in this case for war crimes crimes acts is 20 years. Courts cannot utter a higher sentence than what the applicable law stipulates, and the applied law speaks of the criminal acts of 99) is that the work it has been charged with cannot be handed down greater than 20 years... At the time the war crimes criminal acts were committed in Kosovo the applicable law has been the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia ... It is a principle in justice that the most favourable law applies to defendants, respectively, when, respectively, UNMIK, when it has abolished the sentence and death and life imprisonment for any criminal offense that was committed prior to 2000, is only worth the previous years of that time it was in force. Any other law that is stricter and goes to the court's disparity, of course, the courts, but lawyers and defendants also have the right and the privilege to exploit and enforce the law that is more favourable for them at the time the criminal work has been committed”, Miftaraj stressed.

Even the lawyer, Arianti Koci, says institutions and justice in Kosovo cannot change anything in terms of increasing punishments for those who committed war crimes.

Although he considers the sentence to be extremely low by 20 years in prison as in the case of Goran Stanisic, who has killed 13 Albanian civilians, Koci says such a practice has been used in all countries that have been part of the former Yugoslavia.

Koci: The 20-year sentence is low, but we cannot change the system.

There is unfortunately nothing we can change according to international standards, the chief criminal offense is condemned under criminal law at the time of committing criminal acts or any more favourable law. So we can't change anything figuratively and hypothetically even Stanishiqi and if he killed another thousand Albanians in a day he couldn't be punished more than 20 years in prison... This concrete case in this trial, the court has been very analyzed but I have to say they've done a fantastic job... I understand very well family members and really for 13 murders is very little but the justice system functions that way we are a judicial state, and perhaps as satisifation should be that even countries in the region of all the countries that have left Yugoslavia apply the same standard in Croatia no one has been convicted more than 20 years or even in Bosnia. I completely understand this is very little but we can't change the system and we don't have to change the” system, Koci said.

With the sentence of only 20 years in prison for Goran Stanisic, who had killed 13 Albanian civilians during the war in Kosovo, are failing to reconcile the family members of those missing during the war.

Nusrette Kumnova, who even after more than 20 years of war, has disappeared her son, the maximum penalty of 20 years for those who committed murder and massacre in Kosovo, considers him extremely low.

It even calls on Kosovo's institutions of justice to apply life in prison to Serbian criminals.

I promised: Criminals brought to justice be sentenced to life in prison

For us family members are very painful and this lesser sentence is because they have claimed thousands of lives of innocent Albanian people. We've been taken away by children from our homes for 20 years' detention is an insult to families who are most absent of our loved ones. We're insulting all family members with these minor sentences. The main requirement is that the fate of even 1,000 and 600 of those found among them, my only son Albion and the criminals, have to be brought to justice and receive due punishment, deserved punishment is the eternal punishment for criminals who committed crimes this is our call for our courts as well as for our high institutions... We were very interested in this sentence where I hope my message, both mother and in the name of all the families of Kosovo, that all criminals who are brought to justice be punished with life prison<1>

The executive director of the Humanitarian Law Fund, Bekim Blakaj, says that despite the 20-year sentence is fairly low, it is very important that we have more such acts.

According to him, Serbia's Special Prosecutor is not co-operating with the Special Prosecutor of Kosovo to punish those who committed war crimes in Kosovo.

Blake: While we cannot be satisfied with the sentence, it is important to have more of these commitments

It is very important that we have as many such judgments as possible, that as many victims see justice even in these cases when they are not satisfied. So the important thing is to have judicial processes and prosecute those who committed crimes while the height of the sentence is this... This problem is Serbia's special war crimes prosecutor's failure to co-operate with Kosovo's, as we know most of those who committed crimes during the war in Kosovo are already in Serbia, and they are not accessible to Kosovo's investigators and police, so until 1 year ago, they have not been able to start their judgments. But now it has become possible to execute judgments in absentia“, he stressed.

During this week, Goran Stanissic has been sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison by the Constitutional Court in Pristina, after being found guilty of killing 13 civilians in Slovenian, Lipjan, during the recent war in Kosovo. The indictment against him was announced Tuesday by the chairman of the court, Judge Valon Kurtaj.

During the war in Kosovo, about 13 thousand and 500 people, the overwhelming majority of Albanians, while 1,000 and 600 are still considered undiscovered.