Musa Damati, lawyer for Vlora Hyseni in Kosovo in several civil cases: Public prejudgment is prohibited before a final court decision

Musa Damati has announced that he is Vlora Hyseni’s lawyer in Kosovo in several civil legal cases.

In a Facebook post, following recent developments in Albania, where Vlora Hyseni, the former director of Albania’s State Intelligence Service, is under house arrest, Damati stressed that Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is considered one of the most important articles in the case law of the Strasbourg Court, and that it also implies that, in connection with the presumption of innocence, public prejudgment is prohibited before a final court decision.

Damati wrote that he has been Hyseni’s lawyer in Kosovo since 2021, representing her under written authorization before Kosovo’s courts in several civil legal cases. Hyseni has headed two secret services: she twice headed Kosovo’s AKI, then served as security adviser to Albania’s prime minister, and most recently as director general of the Albanian State Intelligence Service (SHISH).

For Hyseni, as for every other citizen who may be subject to criminal proceedings, the crucial procedural principle of justice — the presumption of innocence — must apply, guaranteed by domestic and international criminal legislation, meaning that every person is presumed innocent until the contrary is proven by a final verdict of the competent court, as expressly set out in Article 6, paragraph 2, of the European Convention on Human Rights, Damati wrote. He noted that the photo accompanying his post was taken in 2021, before Hyseni took up official functions in Albania, during a working meeting on the legal procedures for her representation.