Lawyer Jasini criticizes the Special Court: “a negative precedent for international justice”

Lawyer Rudina Jasini has described the Specialist Court as a “sui generis” institution and has criticized its legal basis and the way the law is interpreted. She said the Specialist Court constitutes a “negative precedent” for international criminal justice.

Lawyer Rudina Jasini, part of the defense team of Rexhep Selimi, has criticized the manner of creation and functioning of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, saying that this institution is “unprecedented” in the spectrum of international criminal justice.

Commenting on the verdict against the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Jasini said that first it must be analyzed in retrospect what this institution represents and what the consequences of its activity have been.

“First, does this institution truly represent the will of the people of Kosovo. Second, was the establishment of this institution an answer to the demand for justice of the victims in Kosovo. I think in both cases the answer is no,” Jasini said on Debat Plus.

According to her, the way the institution was created was special, as it was initially conceived as a specialized and relocated judicial institution of Kosovo.

Jasini also dwelt on the conclusions of the verdict against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.

She emphasized that all four defendants were acquitted of crimes against humanity charges, since according to her, the Prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the existence of a crime against humanity that had a systematic, widespread and extensive character in Kosovo.

On the other hand, the trial panel found them guilty of four war crimes: arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful killing.

For these offenses, Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi were sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment each, Kadri Veseli to 18 years, while Rexhep Selimi to 13 years.

Jasini considered the law on which this court was built and functions as one of the main problems of the institution.

She said the legal framework provides for the application of customary criminal procedure law in accordance with the criminal law applicable in former Yugoslavia, but according to her, in practice there have been different interpretations by trial panels.

“Sometimes the law of Kosovo, the law that was in force at that time in Kosovo. Sometimes customary criminal procedure law. And this has brought a very wide space for the trial panel to interpret,” she said.

According to Jasini, this interpretive space has gone even beyond the way similar issues have been interpreted by other international tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

“The Special Court of Kosovo, this sui generis institution, is unprecedented in the entire spectrum of international criminal justice. In fact, de jure it is a local court, but it has crossed the boundaries not only of local courts, but also the boundaries of international courts, of international tribunals,” she declared.

According to her, because of this special nature and the manner of interpretation of the legal framework, this institution constitutes, in her assessment, “a negative precedent for all international criminal law.”

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