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Kurti Case Presents Legal Headache for UN in Kosovo
02 October 2007 The people of Kosovo and the UN administration do not see eye-to-eye over the proceedings against political activist Albin Kurti.
By Krenar Gashi in Pristina
Albin Kurti sits in his apartment, on the fourth floor of a building in the Dardania district of Pristina. Every eight hours two police officers start a new shift on the building’s ground floor. They stay there 24 hours a day to make sure Kurti does not leave his apartment.
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“I am a political prisoner”, says Kurti, sitting comfortably in an armchair in front of a shelf full of books of various kinds. “They [UNMIK] do not want any critics. They want to silence the voice of dissent”, he adds.
For months now Kurti’s daily activities have been limited to reading, and welcoming the many visitors who come to meet him at his apartment.
Kurti was briefly arrested for Vetevendosje movement activities before, but he has now been in detention and then under house arrest since the Pristina protests of February 10 when two people died and over 80 were injured in clashes with the police.
Vetevendosje (Self-determination) movement opposes the negotiating process on Kosovo’s future status, demanding instead full and immediate independence for the UN-administered entity.
Kurti, a former students’ leader, was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to 15 years in prison by the late President Slobodan Milosevic’s regime on charges of criminal acts against the territorial integrity of the former Yugoslavia and involvement in subversive terrorist activity. He was released from jail in 2001.
The Vetevendosje movement that gathered up to several thousands people was involved in many actions that included protesting against the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, and painting the slogan “no negotiations, self-determination” on the walls of many public buildings.
As he has been kept under house arrest for months now, in Kosovo there are two different opinions that are being formed about his case. While most Kosovars believe that the charges against Kurti have been politically motivated, the international administration has been firmly denying that claim.
Meanwhile, there is a rising tide of criticism among local experts, opinion-formers and ordinary citizen. Many of them argue that the prosecution and the judges belong to the same department at UNMIK, which does not ensure the independence of the judiciary.
Kurti was indicted by an international prosecutor on May 31 for "participating as an organiser in a crowd, committing a criminal offence, [and] participating as a leader in a group obstructing official persons in performing their duties".
The charges relate to the February 10 protest, in which two persons were killed after UN police forces fired rubber bullets at protesters when they tried to break through police lines and reach a government building.
An independent investigation, led by special prosecutor Robert Dean, concluded that the victims died after being shot in the head with rubber bullets by UN police officers from Romania, and that their deaths had been “unnecessary and avoidable”.
However in his final report of July 2, Dean said there were substantial differences between Romanian law, international law and UN guidelines on the use of rubber bullets, and that no police officer should be charged for the deaths. Read BIRN Investigative Report on the protest: http://birn.eu.com/en/79/10/2548/
The status of Kosovo, a UN administrated territory since 1999, is a matter of internationally-mediated negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia politicians. And while many in Kosovo may disagree with Kurti’s actions, most people believe that he is being held isolated to prevent him from carrying on with his political activities while the status issue awaits its resolution.
The indictment against Kurti has been led by international prosecutors, and he is being judged by international judges due to, according to UNMIK, to the political sensitivity of the case. The international judicial system in Kosovo, managed by UNMIK’s Department of Justice, DOJ, continues to have the authority under reserved competencies to take cases from local judges and prosecutors in special occasions.
Ahmet Hasolli, the defence council appointed by the court, but not recognised by Kurti, says that the justification for keeping Kurti under house arrest is vague. “The only legal basis that they are using to keep him under house arrest is the fear of repetition of similar offences, and they take it for granted that he is guilty of having committed these offences”, Hasolli says.
Hasolli has criticised the panel of three judges who lead the judicial process for what he claims is their unquestioning support for the prosecution by approving and reaffirming the request for Kurti’s continued detention and house arrest.
Tome Gashi, a well known lawyer, who is working closely with Amnesty International, a global human rights watchdog, says that “everybody in Kosovo knows that Kurti is a political prisoner”. Gashi explains that he and a group of international lawyers are collecting evidence that could lead to the proclamation of Kurti as a political prisoner by organisations, such as Amnesty International. “This should happen very soon”, he says.
Other human rights organisations have reacted as well. "The indictment against Albin Kurti is considered a political decision, against freedom of speech and the right to protest", said Behxhet Shala, director of the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedom, a local human rights organisation.
Julie Chadbourne of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights said in one of BIRN’s “Life in Kosovo” TV debates that her organisation had been denied permission without proper justification to visit Kurti while he was in detention. Other organisations and political officials were allowed to visit Kurti, she said. “This speaks about arbitrary application of the law”, Chadbourne said.
Ilir Mirena, an analyst from Pristina, has told Balkan Insight that “the motives why Kurti is being held under house arrest give him all the attributes of a political prisoner”.
But UNMIK officials disagree. “He [Kurti] is not being prosecuted for his political views. His political views are for independence of Kosovo, and that is the majority position here”, says Robert Dean, an international prosecutor and acting head of UNMIK’s Department of Justice, DOJ.
“The problem with Kurti is the way of expression. It’s not the message, it’s the manner”, Dean told Balkan Insight, arguing that Vetevendosje aimed to enter government buildings during February 10 protests.
Kosovo politicians rushed to condemn those protests and the two deaths, and criticised the Vetevendosje movement for having organised the demonstration in the first place. However, in the meantime some Kosovo politicians have accused UNMIK of leading a politically-motivated judicial process against Kurti.
In an opinion published in Koha Ditore daily, Jakup Krasniqi secretary of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, rated the indictment against Kurti as absurd. “I do not agree with many things about Vetevendosje or Albin Kurti’s political views, however he and everybody else in Kosovo should be free to express those views”, wrote Krasniqi who asked the court not to delay the process but to end it, and set Kurti free.
The President of the District Court of Pristina, Anton Nokaj is expected any time to decide on whether the trial against Kurti should proceed with the same panel of judges, after Maurizio Salustro, an international judge of that Court, postponed the trial indefinitely following a hearing on September 19.
“I have just received the file today, and I will make the decision as soon as possible”, Nokaj told Balkan Insight on September 27.
“I don’t accept this panel of judges… I don’t recognise this court”, Kurti said at the last hearing. “You are not impartial – as I will explain, the case proceedings show that you are favouring the prosecution and already presuming that I am guilty. You are endorsing the discrimination and procedural irregularities in this case violating my fundamental rights and freedoms”, he went on.
“My basic human rights were violated at the last hearing”, says Kurti arguing that judge Salustro interrupted his defence speech due to, as he said, its irrelevance to the trial.
But Kurti and his defence council say this was far from the only violation that happened during the process. During the hearings defence and some observers argued that the prosecutors were using politically-motivated arguments.
According to the official transcripts of the May 7 hearing, “in response to a question by the Court that it is the right of citizens in democratic countries to engage in peaceful demonstrations without prejudicing the well being of other citizens, the Public Prosecutor tried to link that to the danger that the defendant represented to the future status of Kosovo”.
Hilmi Jashari, acting ombudsperson of Kosovo was surprised when asked to comment on the prosecutor’s remarks. “The judge should have objected to this sentence at the very moment it was uttered”, he said.
“I cannot comment on that specific case. But I think one can construe this to be political”, said Robert Dean, who is in charge of supervising international judges and prosecutors in Kosovo.
Kurti also calls into question the impartiality of the judges because of the organisational arrangements in place in Kosovo’s international administration. “Both prosecutors and judges are appointed and supervised by UNMIK. Judges cannot be independent and impartial in this way. In addition, in my case UNMIK is also the injured party to the case”, he says, being interrupted by several phone calls from the people who are interested to know how he is doing.
“The ‘judge’ is prosecuting him, ‘the judge’ is judging him, and furthermore, the ‘judge’ is allegedly a victim of him”, said Tome Gashi.
Robert Dean says that as the acting director of DOJ, he has “promised judges complete independence of operations”. Yet he admits: “When I saw the structure that the prosecutors and the international judges were organisationally within the same department of justice, I found it, from my American experience, problematic.”
However, Dean argues that this is the structure that was established when the mission was set up, and that he is being very careful to ensure judges have the required independence. “We have to take extra measures to make sure the judges are independent. Even with that, the organisational structure does cause me some reservations”, he says.
Hilmi Jashari said that this had been a concern for the Ombudsperson from the very beginning. Jashari also said that his office noticed some apparent violation of procedures in Kurti’s case. “There was a certain moment during the hearings when the prosecutor approached the judge and consulted him without the defence council being present.”
Robert Dean said he could not comment on that particular case as he did not know what the discussion was about.
Meanwhile, few can avoid the feeling that virtually every person in Kosovo has a clear opinion about Kurti’s case. Although not many would join him in protests against UNMIK, most Kosovars believe that the Vetevendosje leader is being isolated intentionally.
The fact that Kurti is kept under house arrest “is an insult for a judicial system”, says Tome Gashi. “Everything Albin did, he did in public. There is absolutely no reason to keep him in detention”, he added and argued that UNMIK wants to keep Kurti isolated until the Kosovo’s final status is resolved.
But he says, “Kosovo needs Kurti now, not then.”
“What they’re doing to him is unjust. Ever since I remember Albin he was always protesting. He is always there to show dissatisfaction on various issues”, says Jeton, a 19-year-old bartender in Pristina.
Another local joins in the conversation. “It is convenient for somebody to keep him inside now. They have no evidences to sentence him, so they are keeping him in”, he said.
In the meantime Kurti remains detained in his apartment. “My case will be a good case study for students of law in the future”, he says and once again answers the phone to talk to a friend of his.
“Come by, I’m home. I have nowhere else to be”, he says.
Krenar Gashi is BIRN Kosovo Editor. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.
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