Xhorxhina BamiPristinaBIRNMarch 1, 202317:16A decision to transfer cases from Mitrovica to other courts in the country, following the mass resignation of Kosovo Serb officials last year, will create extra burdens for the justice system, lawyers claim.

Transferring Court Cases from Mitrovica Will Harm Kosovo Justice, Lawyers Say

A man rides a bike on the main bridge in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, September 3, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Valdrin Xhemaj

The potential transfer of court cases from the Mitrovica Basic Court to other basic courts by the Kosovo Judicial Council, KJC, may harm justice processes, due to difficulties and the increased expenses of parties participating in trials, lawyers say.

“The majority of witnesses are from Mitrovica and the surrounding areas. Obliging a witness to travel to Peja, Gjilan, or Gjakova is mistreatment,” Mitrovica-based lawyer Mahmut Halimi told BIRN.

KJC spokesperson Aishe Qorraj told BIRN that 83 cases from Mitrovica Basic Court will be transferred to the other six Basic Courts of the country: Peja/Pec, Prizren, Gjakovë/Djakovica, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Pristina, and Ferizaj/Urosevac.

This is due to the low number of staff in the Mitrovica Court following the mass resignations of Serbian judges and prosecutors in November last year.

“The absence of 130 officials, including judges and administrative staff of the Basic Court of Mitrovica and its branches in Leposavic and Zubin Potok creates difficulties,” Qorraj told BIRN, explaining that despite this, the court has continued offering services to citizens.

Serbs resigned from state institutions in four Serb-majority northern municipalities of Kosovo on November 7, claiming that EU-mediated agreements between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels are being breached.

The resignations came after a meeting in the town of Zvecan organised by the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista.

The move came two days after the regional director of the Kosovo Police for the Serb-majority north, Nenad Djuric, was suspended for calling for resistance to government orders.

Halimi told BIRN that since the mass resignation of Kosovo Serbs, “no trial has been set, no hearing …[and] many of the cases include accused that are in detention. This is inexcusable, unacceptable”.

He claimed the proceedings will be prolonged further because additional problems will arise, which include extra expenses for defence counsels as well as for witnesses and other parties in procedures.

Another Mitrovica-based lawyer, Musa Damati, told BIRN the transfer of cases would “deepen the crisis because a case is related to objective and subjective territorial attributes”.

“Such an approach, distributing the cases to different courts of Kosovo, can be interpreted as not being able to solve the problem, and deepening the crisis in Mitrovica – and such an unprecedented situation only creates an even bigger circus in the judiciary of Kosovo, specifically the one in Mitrovica,” he said.

Halimi added: “We have had similar experiences before as well, and judges then were transferred from other courts to Mitrovica,” adding that this would be a much easier solution.

According to Kosovo’s Code of Criminal Procedure, in the case of a change of judge, the case goes back to the initial hearing, which includes the reading of the indictment and the accused’s pleas. The same is expected to happen to the cases of the resigned Kosovo Serbs judges in Mitrovica, with extra difficulties.

“Courts are obliged to ensure efficacity and economize and simplify procedures,” Halimi said, explaining that this decision does not do that.

“Most cases have a large number of witnesses … it has been hard enough already to invite them to court at the Mitrovica Basic Court, which did a good job in sending invitations directly, often avoiding postal issues, but this staff cannot do the same in another city like Peja, for example,” Halimi said.

Source link: balkaninsight.com