Perparim IsufiPristinaBIRNApril 5, 202316:02As women’s groups protested in Pristina over prosecution and police inaction in the case of a woman killed by her husband in 2021, the prosecution announced a probe into the prosecutor handling the case.
Activists in Pristina at a protest against official inaction in protection of a woman killed by her husband in 2021. Photo: BIRN
Two women’s rights organisations on Wednesday called for action by the Prosecution and Police after a court ruling said relevant institutions failed to protect a woman, Sebahate Morina, who was killed by her husband in March 2021 in Pristina.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the Police and Prosecution ”failed in their positive obligations” to protect Morina’s life. As part of the protest event, activists hung pages of the verdict in front of the Prosecutorial Council’s entrance.
Morina was killed in March 2021, 11 days after her daughter reported her mother’s physical abuse to the police.
Days after the murder, two local NGOs, the Kosovo Democratic Institute, KDI, and the Kosovo Womens Network, KWN, found that Morina’s ex- husband had been reported for domestic violence in 2019 as well, when he was held in custody, and when the now deceased woman received police protection.
But Morina’s protection measures expired in December 2020, around three months before she was killed.
The Constitutional Court found that the police failed to assess the risk established in the Standard Operation Procedures and that inaction to assess the immediate risk “also resulted in the failure to take prevention measures”, as established by the so-called Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
As the protest was underway, the Prosecution announced that after receiving the Constitutional Court’s verdict it had initiated a disiplinary procedure against the prosecutor who investigated the case. “The public will be informed in due time of the epilogue of this procedure,” it said.
Reported domestic violence cases in Kosovo have increased in recent years. Police reported about 1,914 cases in 2019, but the number rose to 2,069 in 2020. In 2021, 2,456 cases of domestic violence were recorded while in 2022 the number increased to 2,793.
Leonida Molliqaj, from the Pristina-based organisation for protection of women, QIKA, highlighted lack of institutional action in this case after the court’s verdict. “We will never allow this important verdict to pass in silence,” Molliqaj said.
Adelina Berisha, from Kosovo Women’s Network, said the prosecutor who dealt with the case should be dismissed.
“Our request is simple. The State Prosecutor should immediately start procedures to dismiss the Head of Pristina Basic Prosecution and the prosecutor of the case for all the violations that were done in this case. We also ask the police to dismiss all officers who did not handle this case properly,” Berisha said.
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