War crimes sentences, differences between courts in Kosovo and the Special Court

War crimes sentences, differences between courts in Kosovo and the Special Court

A few days ago, the Basic Court in Pristina also announced a guilty verdict for war crimes against Zoran Vukotić.

However, the sentence imposed for the murder of a 14-year-old boy in 1999 was 15 years.

“The Criminal Law of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, therefore the court, based on the articles of the Criminal Law and the Code of Criminal Procedure….”

This is not the only case where courts in Kosovo have imposed sentences of so many years, which is the highest provided for by the Criminal Code of the Former Yugoslavia, on which Kosovo courts are based because it was in force when the criminal offense was committed.

This practice, according to lawyers, needs to be changed.

“The legislation in Kosovo or the framework left over from the past or the law applied in Kosovo, which is based on the legislation of the former Yugoslavia from the past, I think that the little legal framework that remains should be changed, and the Republic of Kosovo, in the absence of adequate legislation, is then obliged to limit its courts to the level of criminal sanctions..”, stated Musa Damati – Lawyer for RTV Dukagjini.

However, such a code is not applied by the judges of the Specialist Chambers for Kosovo, and according to lawyers, they are committing legal violations.

“This legal obligation is also described in Article 15 of the Law on Specialized Chambers, where unfortunately the Specialized Chambers for Kosovo, which are administered or led by international staff, by international judges in a completely unprincipled manner, are not implementing Article 15..”, stated Xhevdet Smakiqi – Lawyer.

“It is in complete contradiction with the principle of legality, which is also the cornerstone of criminal law, which provides that the punishment imposed for a criminal offense cannot be harsher than what was determined by law at the time the criminal offense was committed, meaning that this law cannot be bypassed and the Criminal Code of Kosovo applied..”, emphasized Meshari Selimaj – Lawyer.

For war crimes, the Specialist Chambers for Kosovo sentenced Salih Mustafa to 26 years in prison, but this sentence was reduced to 15 years. Pejtër Shala was also sentenced by the Specialist Chamber for war crimes, to 18 years in prison.