Publicist Lis Bukuroca has reacted to comments by Enver Hasani, the former president of the Constitutional Court, about the possibility of Kosovo repealing the Law on the Special Court.
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In a Facebook post, Bukuroca questioned the legal and political consequences of such a move. He warned that Kosovo could face international isolation and sanctions, while emphasizing that repealing the law would not annul the convictions handed down by the Special Court. The evidence and testimony, he said, would remain, reports “Bota sot.”
He also raised the issue of the distinction between what the state can do and the powers that belong to the courts.
Bukuroca writes that even if Hasani is right and Kosovo can unilaterally repeal the law, the lack of agreement from the EU could lead the country toward international isolation and sanctions.
Nevertheless, he stresses, repealing the law would not give Kosovo the right to overturn the convictions handed down by the Special Court. According to him, the law and the convictions are two separate matters: the former concerns the actions of the state, while the latter concerns the jurisdiction of the courts.
Bukuroca argues that the state can pass laws or repeal them, but it cannot replace the court and annul convictions for political reasons. He asks how a jurist could fail to recognize this fundamental distinction.
The publicist calls on Hasani to explain what the state of Kosovo could concretely undertake with regard to the decisions of its own courts: can it annul them through a law, or can judicial decisions be changed only through court procedures?
As an example, Bukuroca asks whether Kosovo can dissolve the Court of Appeals, which in 2017 acquitted Agim Çeku and nine other people convicted of creating the New KLA.
In his reaction, he adds that the opposition is not directed against the criminal offenses on which the Court is based, but against the convictions. According to him, dissolving the Court of Appeals as well would cause the convictions to remain in place forever.
