KLA War Veterans Organization calls for legal ban on reopening concluded cases

The KLA War Veterans Organization has asked the Kosovo Assembly to include in the Draft Law on Supplementing and Amending the Law on Specialist Chambers an amendment banning the reopening of cases based on the same essential facts and circumstances that have already been examined and finally adjudicated.

The request was addressed to the president of the Kosovo Assembly, the leaders of parliamentary groups and members of parliament, whom the KLA War Veterans Organization called on to clearly include this provision in the draft law.

According to the organization, the ban should apply to cases handled by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), UNMIK, EULEX or any other competent court.

The KLA War Veterans Organization links the request to ensuring legal certainty and implementing the principle of ne bis in idem, which means that a person should not be subjected again to criminal proceedings for the same facts and circumstances if a final decision has already been issued on them by a competent judicial body.

The organization described this issue as particularly important, stressing that former KLA leaders were found guilty at first instance in cases that, according to the organization, had previously been addressed in various domestic and international judicial proceedings.

The KLA War Veterans Organization also calls for a change in the legal classification or wording of an indictment not to enable the same facts and circumstances to be brought back in a new proceeding.

“A change in the legal classification or wording of an indictment should not serve as a basis for recycling the essential facts and circumstances that have already been examined and on which a final decision has been issued,” the organization said in its request.

KLA veterans called on the Assembly and members of parliament to regulate this issue through a specific provision in the draft law, with the aim of protecting legal certainty, equality before the law and the right to a fair trial.

According to the KLA War Veterans Organization, such a guarantee would not be important only for former KLA leaders, but would also help strengthen the rule of law and citizens’ trust in justice institutions.

The organization asked the Assembly to consider the amendment seriously and urgently and include it in the changes to the Law on Specialist Chambers.