At the request of Albulen Haxhiu due to the Parliament's constitutional session, court sessions for tear gas are postponed

Judge Bujar Ahmeti said Haxhiu has filed a request for postponement of the session due to the appointment of the Assembly Constitution session, reports “Justice Trust “Transition Periscope.

Present at the hearing were the accused Lekaj, Cadaj Bujupi and Baftiu.

Lekaj's defender, lawyer Musa Damatti, asked to be equipped with subject paperwork at the next session.

In the absence of legal conditions, today's session was postponed and the next scheduled for June.

Otherwise, for 10:00 a.m., the 12th continuation of the constitutional session, where Haxhiu is nominated by the Vetevendosje Movement for Speaker of the Parliament.

In this case, Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu, former deputer Pal Lekaj, Donika Kadaj-Bujupi and Besa Battiu are accused of 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, Pal Lekanin, Donika Kadaj-Bujupi and Besa Battiu -- on charges of containing tear gas in the Kosovo Assembly.

However, against this act of complaint, the Constitutional Prosecutor in Pristina had filed, where at the session 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 defendants are charged that each separately committed criminal work “retaining ownership, control or unauthorized possession of weapons” by Article 374, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code.