Constitutional Court

KI 62/17, Applicant: Emine Simnica, Constitutional review of Decision PN. II. no. 1/17 of the Supreme Court of Kosovo, of 31 January 2017, concerning Decision PML. no. 300/16 of the Supreme Court, of 12 December 2016

KI 62/17, Judgment of 29 May 2018, published on 18 June 2018

Key words: individual referral, right to fair and impartial trial, right to access the court

Basic Prosecution in Prishtina brought an indictment against the Applicant. The Basic Court in Prishtina rendered a judgment whereby it found the Applicant guilty of having committed a criminal offence.

The State Prosecutor filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals against the decision of the Basic Court. The Court of Appeals rendered a judgment whereby it granted the appeal of the State Prosecutor and modified the judgment of the first-instance court.

The Applicant filed a request for protection of legality with the Supreme Court against the judgment of the Court of Appeals The Supreme Court rendered a decision whereby it rejected the request for protection of legality of the Applicant’s legal representative as inadmissible without verifying her authorization.

The Applicant filed a request for annulling the previous decision of the Supreme Court against the decision of the Supreme Court alleging that in its previous decision the Supreme Court had not fulfilled its obligation assigned to it by law and had, therefore, violated her rights on access to the court.

The Court considers that given the circumstances, the Applicant’s right to access a court and the principle of fair and impartial trial had been violated, as foreseen by Article 31 of the Constitution and Article 6 of ECHR.