Constitutional Court

KI156/17, Applicant: Valmir Hajrullahu, Constitutional review of Decision PML. no. 282/2017 of the Supreme Court of Kosovo, of 13 October 2017

 KI156/17, Resolution on inadmissibility, approved on 29 May 2018, published on 11 June 2018

Key words: individual referral, criminal procedure, right to fair trial, right to effective legal remedies, out-of-time referral

The Applicant alleged that, the Supreme Court had, by its challenged decision, violated his rights guaranteed by Articles 31 [Right to Fair and Impartial Trial] and 32 [Right to Legal Remedies] of the Constitution, as read in conjunction with paragraph 1 of Article 432 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Having reviewed the case in its entirety, the Court concluded that the Applicant had, in fact, exercised a legal remedy not permissible by law. For this reason, the Court considered Decision Pn. no. 516/17 of the Court of Appeals, of 5 July 2017—which had been served on the Applicant on 17 July 2017—as the final decision and reference for calculating the time limit, and reached the conclusion that the referral had been submitted out of the time limit of four months. In the end, the Court established that the Referral had not been submitted within the time limit stipulated by Article 49 of the Law and rule 36 (1) (c) of the Rules of Procedure.