The parliamentary inquiry committee into the case of Arlinda Zekaj began its work on November 2. On the same day, Kosovo Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu called on the Special Prosecution to investigate the actions and inactions of institutional officials in connection with Zekaj’s case. She was killed on October 25 in Peja.
After a meeting of the Assembly Presidency, Haxhiu said the parliamentary inquiry should be accompanied by concrete steps from the justice authorities. The Special Prosecution, she said, should examine any failure to act or improper action by officials.
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She described the committee as an additional mechanism for reviewing the case. Its report will be forwarded to the competent prosecution office. Haxhiu also called on those summoned to testify to respond to the committee’s requests.
The Assembly speaker welcomed the suspension of 11 police officers, the chief prosecutor in Peja and the prosecutor who had handled the case. However, she expressed concern that the Kosovo Judicial Council and the Municipality of Peja had yet to take action. Haxhiu also called for measures against municipal officials responsible for social welfare and said the case should serve as a reminder to officials not to neglect their duties in the future.
Scope of the parliamentary inquiry
The Kosovo Assembly approved the establishment of the committee with 90 votes in favor, four days before it began work on November 2. The inquiry will examine both the actions and inactions of the institutions that dealt with Zekaj’s case. It will also look more broadly at how institutions respond to cases of domestic violence against women and children.
Committee chair Burim Ramadani said its work should be based on facts and evidence and should not be politicized. He explained that the process would have three stages: gathering evidence, assessing it and drafting the final report.
The committee includes 11 members of parliament from the governing party, the opposition and non-majority communities. The Law on Parliamentary Investigation gives it six months to submit its final report to the Assembly.
Warnings before the killing
Arlinda Zekaj was killed on October 25 in Vitomirica, Peja. Her former brother-in-law is suspected of the murder. Before the incident, Zekaj had sought protection from the institutions and warned that her life was in danger.
The Kosovo Police Inspectorate (KPI) identified several shortcomings in its preliminary findings on how the case was handled. According to the KPI, the police had not documented the execution of a protection order issued on September 7. Another order, dated October 16, was implemented six days late and only after the Inspectorate intervened.
The KPI also found that police commanders in Peja had not acted on a request sent by an investigator on October 23 to reassess the case and increase security measures for Zekaj.
After the killing, 11 police officers, including police commanders in Peja, were suspended from duty. Similar measures were taken against the chief prosecutor in Peja and the prosecutor who had handled the case. On October 30, Kosovo Police Director General Gazmend Hoxha resigned, describing the decision as an act of moral responsibility.
The killing sparked protests in several cities across Kosovo. Protesters demanded accountability from the institutions that had handled the victim’s warnings.
Eight women killed in 2026
Arlinda Zekaj is one of eight women killed in Kosovo in 2026. In most of these cases, the perpetrators were the victims’ partners, former partners or family members.
Violence against women remains widespread in the country. Kosovo Police data show that 2,052 cases of domestic violence were reported from January to September this year. A total of 2,138 victims were recorded, including 1,626 women. In the past 24 hours alone, police reported seven more cases of domestic violence; women were the victims in six of them.
Limited results from previous inquiries
The committee investigating the Zekaj case begins its work at a time when previous parliamentary inquiries in Kosovo have been marked by political clashes and limited results.
In a report published in December 2024, the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) said that 15 parliamentary inquiry committees had been established between 2001 and that time. According to the institute, most had failed to establish the facts in the matters they had undertaken to investigate.
The KLI cited a lack of political will, boycotts, lack of a quorum and legal shortcomings as the main obstacles. According to the report, committees had often become arenas for clashes between the governing party and the opposition, rather than carrying out oversight and demanding accountability.
Among the cases analyzed by the institute was the parliamentary inquiry into the deportation of six Turkish nationals from Kosovo in 2018. Although the Assembly had approved the committee’s report, the KLI found that for more than five years the Assembly and the Government had not addressed the identified problems or adopted the Law on Foreigners.
The institute called for changes to the Law on Parliamentary Investigation, including sending reports to the State Prosecutor and the National Audit Office, as well as establishing mechanisms to monitor the implementation of recommendations.
The European Commission also said in its 2024 report on Kosovo that the Assembly had not effectively used parliamentary inquiry committees established at the opposition’s initiative.
This record leaves open the question of whether the committee investigating the Zekaj case will identify institutional responsibilities and spur concrete changes to protect victims of violence, or whether its work will end without tangible results.
