Lack of Judicial Control penalises citizens

The show, '%sistia, has made an extensive report on the subject, reporting that the lack of judicial control is criminalized to citizens but also to cases of corruption.

Fighting corruption remains a priority on paper, for all security and justice institutions in the country. A large number of corruption cases reported in either the police or the prosecutor belonging to the pre-penal phase or the phase of the investigation into criminal procedure are closed by the prosecution without judicial control.

One of the most impressive cases, which testifies to the major consequences of the lack of judicial control, is the Kastrati family case from the Roma community.

Alilij Kastrati says he lived before the war at his home in Obilic. In the 1990s, he and his family had emigrated to Germany. Nearly two decades after the war, he had returned to his homeland but had not found his home.

This is my home. I've lived there for a month, and I've been hanging out in Germany and no more. Then when I heard someone sold the house, I didn't know who sold it, nor who bought it. We've gone to court, we've got the letters all the way from the court, we've seen who bought it and who gave it the right to buy it, and who sold it, and now I've got a lawyer here in Germany”, Kastrat said.

Now in the Kastrati family properties, it figures as the owner of Qerim Prenqi. He's been visiting controversial property and meeting with Qerim Preniqi. He has refused to be interviewed, arguing that the job belongs to the court.

Alilij Kastrati says he has managed to provide evidence and evidence that the sale of Kastrati family property was done through forged authorization.

The Kastrati family lawyer, Xhevahire Klopner, says the prosecutor has handed in 25 evidence, including forged authorization.

So today I don't know how this substance is evaporated, I don't know if they've taken any action. I've tried to get my case number at the DA a couple of times, never been given to me, ever. To this day, I don't know what happened to this subject, and I don't know why the prosecutor doesn't act, does not fight crime, but supports it, in the concrete case, when the property is known to have been occupied”, she said.

The show, Kujtim Munishi, has directed official application to Pristina's Founding Prosecutor, the chief prosecutor, to interview him about this case and about the closure phenomenon through throwing criminal statements and firing of investigations, which do not go through judicial control.

In a brief response from the Pristina Constitutional Prosecutor's Office for Media, they said the number “lada in the complaint of the proposants is found in the Kosovo Appeal Court”. But, by the Court of Appeals, the show "Ilystia" has not been answered.

In the concrete case, the lack of legal provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure, to file complaints against the State Prosecutor's decision, has limited the right of Kosovo citizens to the right to complaint and the right to access to court, which conflicts with guaranteed principles against the Constitution.

In the three 2017s, 2018 and 2019, in the prepenal procedure without passing through judicial control, 1.556 cases of 2,640 have been closed.

During this period of time, the State Attorney has closed cases of pre-penal and criminal investigations against 1,601 persons who are suspected of involvement in criminal acts of corruption. To 913 people, prosecutors have dismissed criminal charges, while 688 people have fired the investigation.

Like this case, in many other convictions, especially corruption, cases are concluded without judicial control in the police and prosecutor.

Official reasons for representatives of these institutions are that there has been no evidence and evidence. In fact, police officials themselves complain that many of their cases are dropped by prosecutors. Former director of the Department for Investigations in Kosovo Police, Riza Silova, says judicial control in the phase of investigations would help all prosecution organs.

For us as police, we would be much more satisfied that any action or work we do in the investigative phase, should be treated in a judicial sense, because legitimacy or court office, I think it eliminates all dilemmas that we can have”, Silova said.

Lack of such judicial control, according to former Supreme Court Chairman Fyzullah Hasani, is exploited by influential police and prosecutors, to abuse citizens' rights, and at the same time misuse their mandate, to accommodate powerful corrupt people.

“I think there would have to be a trial check, so that it won't be allowed to cast a criminal disinclination to end with an act of impeachment that has been issued and without any possibility that the prosecutor's decision, be checked on the part of a court to see whether or not the prosecutor has had the right to cast a criminal earlage or not”, Fejzullah said.

The chief prosecutor of the Kosovo Republic, Blerim Isufaj, agrees that on the basis of legislation, there is no adequate control of the investigation.

“Juridically, according to the laws, there is now no adequate audit in the sense that one can be handled -- for example, by the prosecutor -- when the prosecutor gives up in a second instance. But those cases should usually be controlled by superiors to see whether the throwing of a criminal crash or the firing of an investigation has been based or was unprofessional”, Isufaj said.

Returning judicial control and the right of the parties to complain about prosecutors' decisions of closing cases have found it necessary even in the Supreme Court of Kosovo.

Problems continue as the solution is tried to be done through fulfilling laws that enable judicial control in all these investigations.

Ardian Bajraktari, deputy acting secretary at the Ministry of Justice, says that in this direction, the Ministry of Justice, through a task force for changing and fulfilling the Penal Procedure Code, it is expected to address the case of judicial control in the phase of investigations.

“The inability to accept the verdict, whether to drop criminal charges or even to dismiss investigations has been and continues to remain one of the challenges or issues to be addressed. In this direction, we have recently established a group whose work will address some of the issues which are of the extremely sensitive nature, in which even this” is part of, Bajraktari said.

The justice ministry is still in the process of changing and meeting the Criminal Procedure Code. Until the adoption of new legal provisions that enable investigation control, police officers and prosecutors remain controlled only by independent monitoring, made by civil society and journalists' reporting on specific cases.