Reduction of Life Sentence to 30 Years Sparks Debate After Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court has reduced Edmond Lajçi’s sentence to 30 years in prison. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment at first instance for the murder of his wife.

The ruling comes four months after the same court upheld a life sentence for Dardan Krivaqa for the murder of his girlfriend. In Lajçi’s case, the Supreme Court ruled differently in another case involving the murder of a woman.

The Supreme Court justified the sentence reduction on the grounds that the convicted man had admitted guilt.

“The Supreme Court found that the courts of first and second instance had not correctly applied Article 41 of the Criminal Code regarding the imposition of a life sentence. According to the Supreme Court’s assessment, some of the circumstances considered particularly aggravating were not supported by evidence, while some of them constitute elements of the criminal offence itself and, therefore, cannot justify the imposition of the harshest sentence provided by law. The Supreme Court stressed that life imprisonment may be imposed only in cases where particularly aggravating circumstances clearly distinguish the specific case from ordinary cases of the same criminal offence, and where a more lenient sentence would not be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and the perpetrator’s guilt. In this case, the Supreme Court found that this legal standard had not been met. Based on the principle of individualisation and proportionality of punishment, as well as the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court found that a 30-year prison sentence is proportionate to the seriousness of the criminal offence, the degree of guilt and the dangerousness of the defendant, and that the purpose of punishment can be achieved through this sentence, both in terms of individual and general prevention,” the Supreme Court said in its response.

Lawyer Yll Zekaj believes judges should carefully examine cases before deciding to impose life sentences.

“Publicity should never, nor should any influence or external circumstance, affect the court’s decision. Courts are independent and must act only on the basis of evidence and on the basis of what is presented by the prosecutor in the case file,” said Yll Zekaj, a lawyer.

According to Zekaj, a final life sentence does not necessarily mean that the convicted person will remain in prison for the rest of their life.

“Life imprisonment in the system we have in Kosovo does not mean that a prisoner or person sentenced to life imprisonment will never leave prison. Our legislation, our Criminal Code, provides that even life imprisonment may be reviewed after 30 years of serving the sentence,” said Yll Zekaj, a lawyer.

Life imprisonment is the harshest punitive measure in Kosovo’s criminal justice system. Since the Criminal Code entered into force in 2013, this sentence has been imposed in more than 10 cases.