Constitutional Chamber of the Special Court partially dismisses Pjetër Shala’s appeals, finds no violations of rights

The Specialist Chamber of the Constitutional Court has ruled that some of Pjetër Shala’s appeals are inadmissible, while finding that the Constitution and international human rights conventions were not violated in relation to the remainder.

According to a statement from the Specialist Chambers, the decision was issued on October 23, 2026. Shala had claimed that his guaranteed rights had been infringed during the criminal proceedings against him.

One of his objections concerned the lengthy period between the crimes included in the indictment and the conduct of the trial. The Chamber rejected this part of the appeal, finding that domestic remedies had not been exhausted.

However, regarding the other claims, it concluded that Shala had been afforded adversarial proceedings. In its assessment, the proceedings as a whole had been fair and non-arbitrary.

Shala had also raised objections to the admission and use of statements he had given without the presence of legal counsel. These included statements submitted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Belgium’s Federal Judicial Police.

According to the Chamber, Shala had been given several opportunities to challenge both the statements and their use. It clarified that one of the statements had not been used during the trial, while the others had not been decisive in securing his conviction.

Another issue raised by Shala concerned the principle of legality. He had questioned the legal basis for joint criminal enterprise and the war crime relating to arbitrary detention.

The Chamber found that the basic form of joint criminal enterprise was recognized in customary international law. It also found that, at the relevant time, arbitrary detention was supported by a sufficiently clear basis in that law.

For this reason, it found no violation of the principle of legality.

The claims that the indictments had not contained sufficient information to prepare the defense were also declared inadmissible. According to the Chamber, before the trial began, Shala had received sufficient information about the charges and details concerning the victims.

Regarding sentencing, the Chamber recalled that the binding legal document for the Specialist Chambers is Law No. 05/L-053. Criminal panels must also take into consideration other laws of Kosovo, but are not required to apply them.

Meanwhile, the appeal claiming that the sentence was excessive and violated equality before the law was declared inadmissible because domestic remedies had not been exhausted.