The court battle between church and university for land on campus, where is the trial remaining?

The UP and the Serbian Orthodox Church are facing a prolonged judicial process, and both sides say it is not near the end.

The verdict on four-hectare land could determine the fate of the unfinished church called the Church of Christ Savior.

UP claims this facility was built illegally on university land in the 1990s. Historians associate it with the depression of the then Serbian regime, with Slobodan Milosevic at the helm.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, on the other hand, denies that the object has political character and requires that its use for religious rites be allowed.

On June 2nd, the Serbian Orthodox Church has accused the Kosovo Police of, as it has said, preventing a liturgy in this church.

Pristina historian Stanisa Arsreq has told Radio Free Europe that liturgy has been scheduled to be held in the presence of dozens of believers, on the occasion of the Savior's Day cream é Orthodox holiday but that police have prevented the ceremony. The police themselves have said the event has not been warned.

In June last year, however, the Serbian Orthodox Church has managed to retain a liturgy in the usually empty controversial church.

This exploitation of the facility, Kosovo institutions have described it as “violation of public security rules”, as Kosovo Police have not been warned of that rally.

Where is the trial?

The contested land where the church is located is owned by the Pristina municipality.

Pristina University, in the indictment it has exercised in court, claims it has had the land in free and unhindered exploitation since 1975.

According to the UP's, this land was given to the church in illegal exploitation in 1990.

From the Serbian Orthodox Church, they insist that “do not need to gain justice over land”, as land and church objects, according to them, belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church.

“It is the task of the other side to prove the opposite”, Serbian Orthodox Church representative Aleksandar Radovanovic tells Radio Free Europe.

The issue of land exploitation rights at the university campus has become judicial since 2012.

Pristina University has lost its initial trial in this case, following its representatives' failure to appear at the Constitutional Court in Pristina in 2015.

Later, the Court of Appeals in 2017 also granted the Church the right to land ownership, rejecting the UP's indictment.

In that same year, The UPP has initiated a new indictment, for which no court hearing has been held until early 2021.

The last session in this case was held in February 2022.

The trial is still in the preparation phase, as there have been many procedural things to solve and yet” have not been resolved, Radovanovic says.

One of these issues is who has the right to represent the University of Pristina in this trial, Ehat Miftaraj, from the Kosovo Institute for Justice that has monitored this judicial process, tells Radio Europe.

The court has ruled out the State Lawyer as a representative to protect the interests of Pristina University”, Miftaraj says.

The judge made that decision at the hearing, held in November 2021, with the argument that the state is plaintiff and not ignorant, so he does not have the right to a State Lawyer.

State lawyer, on the other hand, says he has legal authorization to represent the “public budgetary authorities of the Republic of Kosovo”.

The issue has remained to be discussed at the next session, but all parties involved in the process say they do not know when it will be held.

The UP's indictment, originally represented by Pristina University legal officials. Esat Kelmendi, secretary of this university, says about REL that since last year, representation is being done by Kosovo State Attorney.

What can be done with the church after the trial ends?

The church, located on the controversial land, was founded in December 1992, while until early 1999 it was built in its present form.

In 1998-99, a war has been held in Kosovo initiated by the then Serb regime, leaving more than 13 thousand civilians and extinct over 6,000 others, more than 1,600 continue to be found.

The REL suggests that Pristina University has not responded to the question of what its plans are for the church object in case it wins the ground exploitation trial.

UP's students say this church can serve to remember the victims of war.

This is definitely a big obstacle. What should be done with him, maybe it's a problem to say. We had it as an idea earlier, when they came to make some kind of mass last year... we proposed that it become a kind of [war] ” museum, says Arber Gecaj from the Student Parliament.

Even historian Yusuf Bujowi said earlier about Radio Free Europe that the church could serve as a museum.

This church has no history, it is violent, and, in harmony with that, politics should be brought in. Maybe with an agreement between the Government of Kosovo and the European Union... this object will at least become a Kosovo museum, a cultural museum... but these are just theoretical possibilities”, Bujovi said.

The lawyer of the Serbian Orthodox Church says the object cannot be used differently than as a temple for believers.

We think that any other argument, including exotic plans about what should be done with our religious object, is not only contrary to the law in force, but does not help facilitate reports between the [Kosovo] Government and Church”, Radovanovic says.

The question of this church is also mentioned several times in reports by the U.S. State Department on religious freedoms in the world.

In the 2018 report, Pristina municipality has continued not to allow the Serbian Orthodox Church to repair at the church facility at Campus University in Pristina.

In 2016, several excavations were made near this church in search of a mass cemetery with victims of Albanian affiliation, but no sign was finally found.