Frasher Krasniqi, others acquitted of terrorism

The Constitutional Court in Pristina has declared a free trial against indictees Frasher Krasniqi, Adea Batusha, Egzon Haliti and Atti and Arifi on charges of terrorism.

The prosecution against the indictees was announced Tuesday by the chairman of the court, Vesel Ismaili.

In this trial process, which was turned into retrial, Krasniqi, Batusha, Haliti and Arifi were accused of being responsible for the attack on the Kosovo Assembly in August 2016, which has qualified as a terrorist act.

According to the trial, Frasher Krasniqi, Adea Batusha, Egzon Haliti and Atfi are released from the indictment, as it has not been proven that they did the same criminal work that they were burdened with.

Procedual spending falls to the court.

This case, Judge Becir Kaluldra had initially tried it, but after his advance at the Court of Appeals with the December 21st 2020 verdict of the Kosovo Judicial Council (KGJK), the subject has been passed to Judge Deal Shyti, and then the subject was tried by Special Department Judge Vesel Ismaili.

After the retrial, a total of six sessions were scheduled before the court led by Judge Kaluldra, from which only three had managed to be held, reports “Justice Bettim “.

After Judge Kaluldra, on November 27, 2017, had convicted the four accused, sentenced him to 21 years and six months in prison at the first session after the case was in the retrial, on March 4, 2020, the former defender of the accused Krasniqi, lawyer Tome Gashi, had sought exemption from the panel's chairman, Judge Becir Kalldra, but that request was rejected.

Former President Frasher Krasniqi had been sentenced to eight years in prison, Father and Arifi had been sentenced to six years in prison, Egzon Haliti to 5 and a half years, as well as Adea Batusha with two years' removal.

After complaints at the Court of Appeals, the college of the second judicial instance, had assessed that the first degree of judgment was committed by legal violations and had canceled the same and thus turned the subject into retrial.

In the case of convicted VV activists, on February 9, 2018, was also discussed in the Kosovo Assembly and at the end of the session, the Assembly had adopted several recommendations requiring that, in case of the attack on the Assembly building, a thorough, independent international investigation of the entire case was required, by any Western EU member states, including Western European and Switzerland.

Otherwise, the Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) in December 2016 had filed an indictment against Frasher Krasniqi, Father and Arifi, Egzon Halit and Adea Batusha, who accused them of committing the criminal act of terrorism.

To four Vetevendosje activists, The PSRK has filed charges four months after the same, along with the late Astrit Dehari, were arrested as suspected of the August 4th 2016 attack on the Kosovo Assembly facility, but that Dehari had died in November 2016 in his cell in Prizren.

The special prosecutor's indictment reportedly has acted as an organised group “in order to cause serious population intimidation and trigger the sense of uncertainty for citizens and institutions of the Republic of Kosovo”.

According to the indictment, the accused with the intention, that Kosovo's Assembly be forced not to ratify the demarcation agreement with Montenegro and, in this case, cause serious population intimidation and cause a sense of uncertainty in Kosovo citizens, on August 4th 2016, about 23:05 from parking lot in front of Kosovo's Assembly with rocket launchers have carried out the attack on the Kosovo Assembly.