Another decision on the “Venters” What happens now?

The prosecution claims it's about 19,500 fake veterans.

On July 14th, Pristina's Constitutional Court convicted and sentenced former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku to one year in prison, and another 9 accused in retrial “Venters”.

They are believed that, in the quality of a member of the Government Commission for recognition and Verification of the Status of the Nation's Witness, Invalid, Veterans, Partitarian, and Kosovo Liberation Army Intervention, they misused official duty and authority in order for other persons to benefit illegally and at the expense of the state budget.

Who belongs to the vet's pension?

Kosovo's 1998-1999 war veterans, who are unemployed, receive monthly retirement since 2015. According to state data, of the estimated 46 thousand registered veterans, about 37 thousand benefit a 204-euro pension.

Under the Law on KLA War Veterans, there are six categories of veterans: war invalid, warrior veteran, exile, member, war participant and missing soldier KLA.

But according to the same law, only those who have the status of the KLA fighter veteran have the right to pension and additional benefits, while other categories only in money-money benefits by law.

This is the problem. And maybe that's the question that the Prosecution has claimed, because in case a member was in the logistics category, but wasn't a fighter, there was a mistake here and he was equal to the warrior category. This has been the overcoming of authorisations, non-fulfillment of official task”, argues Flamur Kabashi, legal researcher at the Kosovo Institute for Justice, in some response to Radio Free Europe.

According to the former special prosecutor who has prepared the course in this case, Elez Blakaj, only the veterans' expressions are deliberately mentioned in public debates to create <x0).

He believes the case will be taken back to the Court of Appeals, and that this court will then return him to zero once again.

Next steps

Because of the complexity of the case, the Constitutional Court is expected to compile the decision in written form within 60 days, clarifying the main circumstances of how it came to it. The sides of the prosecution or defense have up to 30 days of complaint.

If neither party complains until then, and the sentence is made of definite form, convicted persons are ordered to serve a prison sentence. However, some have just warned of complaint.

In such a situation, so if the case goes to other institutions, the implementation of the decision remains pending accordingly, there will be no orders for prison sentences, and those suspected of not being part of the list will continue to receive it.

Through the verdict, the Court has imposed Kosovo's incumbent government on him to form a commission, which will re-evaluate some 19,500 suspicious apps, and remove from the list names that have not met the criteria.

Kabashi sees this decision as an alternative solution, for the fact that to verify the apps would have to be engaged in an entire device to analyze each of them.

For other connoisseurs of justice, this case seems destined to fail.

They argue there is contradiction in the court's ruling, for the fact that it is said to have been harmed and that prison sentences have been pronounced, but the court has failed to verify the lists itself, and the ball has been placed on the government.

How many veterans does Kosovo really have?

Although there are no random epilogues, there has always been doubts about the exact number of veterans.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci had said in 2018 that there were no more than 12-15 thousand KLA uniformed fighters in war, and that all other figures are “malpractice”.

In 2023, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said he believes there is a kind of triple number of veterans, which according to KLA commanders are about 20,000, while with participants the number amounts to over 60 thousand, reports the REL, broadcast. Periscope