7 minutes agoTrial hearings for Haxhiu and others off
Periskopi(a year ago)
(a year ago)The Constitutional Court in Pristina has announced the annulment of the court hearing against former Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu, Pal Lekaj, Besa Battiu and Donika Cadaj Buyupi, as the Department for Criminals where the case was being tried has declared itself uncompetent by applying for trial at the General Department. [...]
The Judicial Body in this criminal case against the accused A.H., etc., has decided that the Randa Crime Department will be declared incompetent in painful terms and that the subject be passed to the General Department for Criminal Affairs, of this court. Since the court has decided that the Department for War Crimes will be announced incompetent, the initial trial hearing by the date of 10.02.2025 at 13:15, has been cancelled”, the court's announcement said.
Otherwise the November 21st 2025 session had failed in the absence of indictees, Pal Lekaj, Besa Battiu and Donika Kadaj-Bujupi.
In this case, Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu, Deputy Paul Lekaj and former Presidents Donika Cadaj-Bujupi and Besa Battiu are charged with possession of tear gas in the Kosovo Assembly in 2016.
The Constitutional Court in Pristina on May 18th 2021, in the absence of evidence, had cleared them of unlicensed weapons charges -- Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu, MP Pal Lekaj and former deputate Donika Kadaj-Bujupi and Besa Battiu -- on charges of having tear gas in the Kosovo Assembly.
However, against this act of complaint, the Constitutional Prosecutor in Pristina had filed, where at the hearing held on October 6, 2022, this prosecutor had demanded the return of the case to the retrial.
Later, the Court of Appeals on October 14, 2022, has made the verdict with which it has approved the Constitutional Prosecutor's complaint in Pristina and violated the Act of Basic Court of Pristina, turning the case into retrial.
According to the indictment filed on April 8, 2016, Pal Lekaj, Besa Battiu, Donika Cadaj-Bujupi and Albulen Haxhiu are charged with without authorization having possessed tear gas canisters.
The indictment says that on February 19, 2016, around 12:20, in the Kosovo Parliament hall, after a pause in the Parliament's work, until the accused were returning to the hall during the search by the security workers of the Parliament, the accused had been found and seized by a tear gas tank, which they held without authorization.
For these actions, the four accused are said to have each separately committed criminal work “holding ownership, control or unauthorized possession of weapons” by Article 374, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code. /Betimy for Justice
