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SUPREME COURT QUASHES
LOWER COURT JUDGMENT AGAINST KOSOVO ALBANIANS
14 July 2000
The Prizren District Court, now sitting
in Pozarevac, recently found 23 Kosovo Albanians guilty of complicity
in acts of terrorism. The defendants were charged with causing public
danger and carrying out acts of violence when they fired at police
officers at about 3 p.m. on 18, 19 and 20 July and at around 5 p.m. on
21 July last year. One policeman was fatally wounded and several other
seriously injured. The defendants denied the charges.
The defendants were taken into custody at different times: some on the
20th, some on the 19 and others on the 18th of July. Most of them told
the court that they were driven to the firehouse in Prizren in a truck
on whose floor there were spent shells, and Zijajdin Mufari said the
traces of gunpowder on their cheeks were from these shells since they
were ordered to lie face down on the truck floor. Fadil Isma stated
that he other other men in the group used their hands to clear shells
from the ground to make space to sit down while they waited for the
police to return, and Bekim Rama said a policeman had told him to
remove a pile of shells and debris from around a pump. Explaining its
reasons to convict, the District Court said the defendants? statements
about the origin of the traces of nitrate and nitrite found on their
persons were unacceptable as they were stereotyped, that there was no
evidence to prove that they were sheltering in their cellars at the
time the offenses were committed, and that their claims were ?an
attempt to avoid criminal responsibility.? On considering the appeal
of Bekim Rama, the Supreme Court set aside the lower court decision
and ordered a retrial. It found a number of serious procedural
violations and contradictions, noting among other things that the
lower court had concluded that the nitrate and nitrite traces were
from gunpowder though the expert witness had not said so explicitly in
his testimony. The Supreme Court also found that no evidence had been
put foward that the defendants had attacked members of the police
force. Officer Trifunovic was fatally wounded at 5 p.m. on 21 July
while the arrest warrants for all those taken into custody on 21 July
were issued at 4 p.m., one hour before the clash. The Supreme Court
also found that the lower court?s opinion on the complicity of the
defendants was unclear as no grounds for it were set out in the
judgment although the law requires establishment of common intent and
the role played by each individual involved. Furthermore, the Supreme
Court noted that the defendants were given different terms of
imprisonment but the lower court failed to set out the grounds for the
individualization of sentences.
The Supreme Court rightly quashed the lower court?s decision and
ordered it to ?establish all the facts and evidence essential for
determining criminal responsibility? at the new trial. The
Humanitarian Law Center considers that the Supreme Court?s decision
should be taken by lower courts as an indication that they must
properly apply the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and
conduct trials in accordance with national and international standards
for a fair trial.
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