The negligence of institutions in cases of violence, state held responsible for two murdered women

Organisations protecting women's rights and the ombudsman blame justice and security institutions in their treatment, failing to react before they end fatally.

In March of last year, Sebahate Sopi was allegedly killed with firearms by her former husband. The same man took his own life.

Several months later, in August, Kosovo was rocked by another event. The 18-year-old body, Marigona Osmani, was left at the door of Ferizaj's Hospital. She was allegedly killed by her husband, 11 years older, for she could not cope with the mistreatment that took her two days in a row. After two days on the run, the partner of the deceased was chained to a village of Ferizaj.

In addition to these two cases, a case of the murder of a woman by her sister was recorded during 2021.

“As a consequence of domestic violence during January-November 2021, three women have lost their lives in total. Kosovo police deal with serious and high priority cases of domestic violence where, under the Kosovo Police, special units are established with investigative police officers working within them with final training of various levels”, states Captain Arsim Shala, who is head of the sector against Family Violence in the Kosovo Police.

Adelina Berisha from the Kosovo Women's Network says these cases could be prevented if there were more appropriate institutional responses during their treatment when women have sought protection and support.

A young 18-year-old woman ended up fatally because her disaster is having a criminal partner who had been known for all institutions in the Ferizaj municipality before meeting him for defence institutions, police, Prosecution. We realized he had over 100 criminal acts committed. And if he were to receive a sentence in advance at the time when he caused all these acts and there were threats of murder, works that would have held up to five years in prison if the legislation worked properly, and perhaps prevented him from getting in touch with the late”, she relates.

The institutional violence calls the neglect being done to these cases, the director of the organisation for justice and equality Injekt, Luljet Aliu. She says responsibility for these tragedies lies with institutions.

I've often stressed that much of the responsibility rests with institutions. The institutional violence that was also a term we had discussed in 2018, when we organized protests because of Valbonne's case, has been an attempt to raise awareness of institutions. What happens to neglect, with delays in the courts, is institutional violence. It's a violation of human rights when the institution does not perform its duties properly and flows into the protection of the rights of citizens it belongs to, that's violence that the institution makes to the citizen”, Aliu says of KosovaPress.

Furthermore, until she speaks of the case of minors from Ferizaj, Adelaina Berisha adds that she was brutally murdered and that no one from the neighbours reported.

To get to that murder, the two persons who caused it used different tools. Everything makes us believe there were noises, there were screams, there was calls for help from the victim. But none of the neighbors have reacted to help out the feeling, and I think that even in this respect we as citizens are involved in these murders. We are involved in this exercise of violence that we are not becoming the voice of the victims to condemn the acts of these violence perpetrators”, Berisha adds, stressing that victims during reporting are being tried by police.

Ombudsman Naim Celaj claims that in this case there has been lack of care and responsibility for the victim's defence.

This year we have unfortunately had several cases of loss of life of our citizens, as a result of domestic violence. And the case I want to mention here today, which, of course, has raised concern, has also specifically addressed the state's recommendation on how to resolve issues that relate to domestic violence that do not repeat these cases, has been the case of ʹEmshire, the case éopaão. In which case we have analysed and after the investigation, the state is responsible and has failed to meet positive responsibilities in relation to citizens when they are victims of domestic violence. In this case, there has been a lack of caution, and the fact that police organs and prosecutors have been negligent, and today we have two lost lives of our citizens”, declared Naim Celaj.

Four cases of tragic murders have been recorded during 2020. During the past year, many protests and marches have been organised for institutional responses and penalties merited for those performing such works.