Over 580 prisoners have applied for parole this year

Over 580 prisoners have applied for parole this year. Only half of them have met the legal criteria, while the Kusht Freedom Panel has approved the demands of about 50 percent of them.

This is how the chairman of the Kusht Freedom Panel, Valdete Daka, shows that there are even cases of revote of the decision. She says that after her release, persons who committed criminal acts have repeated such acts or left Kosovo without warning.

The one in the interview for Kosova Preiss, also talks about letters received by women not to approve their marriage mates' requests for release.

The chairman of the Council for Freedom with Condition, Valdete Daka, tells of the estimates they make for those seeking release.

During this year we have accepted about 581 parole requests (Video)“in this year, from January to September of this year we have accepted about 581 requirements where approximately 50 per cent of them have been approved, while the rest of them have been rejected for release. As far as criteria are concerned, according to the Law for Execution of Criminal Sanctions it is estimated to bring the convicted to the correct institution. So it is first estimated whether they are disciplined, whether they have observed domestic order, and how kind they are in the area where they suffer punishment, then how their attitude toward criminal acts, or have repented, have they expressed some kind of repentance, what they have with the families of the injured, what their behavior is like, what their conduct is to corrective staff, such as conduct toward other prisoners, have they even had a report with the staff and with the prisoners. Mostly, their behaviour is appreciated from the moment they are admitted to the Correcting Centre until their” assessment is made, it declares.

The convict is entitled that whenever he manages to apply for parole, he must be sentenced to prison.

This panel appreciates the demands of prisoners who have reached the legal condition to apply for parole. This is 2/3 in the case they committed a criminal offense, which is punishable for up to five years in prison, or those who committed 2/3 of the penalty for criminal acts that are punishable by prison sentences of over five years. So these are the cases when they have to meet this legal criteria first and then they have to meet a host of other criteria which are valued by the Kusht” Treaty, it shows.

Despite meeting the parole criteria, there are cases when the same continues with criminal acts after the release.

We've had cases when convicts were approved for bail, released on bail, but the moment they were found in freedom they violated the rules of parole and the same was attempted parole and returned to the suffering of the sentence. These are the cases when the Sprovatory Service does not announce that they leave the state, so without the permission of the Council for Freedom with Conditions, they are not notified at the Sproving Service because they have deadlines when they should be announced or eventually could perform any new criminal work, then automatically re-evaluated on parole”, notes Daka.

Near the three-member panel, aka adds that there are also requests of women who want to be released because they have young children.

Considering that even the number of women who are found guilty of criminal acts, which is an extremely small number, we have a very small number of requests. I remember last year we had a total of four requests, three of which were approved, and only one has been rejected. As for minors, there are even fewer numbers because minors who have been sentenced to prison for minors are very small. They too have a right, and it is that when a third passes, they have the right to apply for parole. However, the number is very small and those requirements were approved, there were two this year, and both were approved”, she says.

In addition, there are times when family members themselves ask the panel not to approve the request of their relatives for parole.

We've had cases when the damaged side itself, in this case a female has been addressed to the Kusht panel with a letter and has demanded that the convict not be released on bail because she still feels at risk and the reasons that the same one can repeat the same work again” are concluded, the chairman of the Treaty for Freedom with Kusht.

The Convention Freedom Panel is the institution under the Kosovo Judiciary Council, which functions based on the Law for Execution of Criminal Sanctions. It is made up of three members, two members are judges, the leader is from the Supreme Court, one from the Court of Appeals and a representative of the Ministry of Justice.