Constitutional Court

Applicants filed a referral against the decision of the Supreme Court, which had rejected the request for protection of legality filed by the applicants against the District Court in Peja in 1945, thereby rejecting the reopening of criminal proceedings according to which brothers Ymer Loxha and Sehit Loxha were proclaimed enemies of the people and were confiscated their property, Applicants allege that their right to a fair and impartial trial, and right to effective legal remedies, were violated, alleging that the Supreme Court had not interpreted the law properly, At the same time, applicants claimed that the case tried by the District Court in Peja in 1945 was a criminal case, where the measure of property confiscation, according to the Law on Criminal Offences against the People and State, was only pronounced against convicted persons, and not against persons that were proclaimed enemies of the people, The Constitutional Court decided to reject applicants’ referral as inadmissible, thereby reasoning that it is time-barred and it is not in compliance with provisions of Constitution, The Court found that in review of the case, it did not find any indication that previous proceedings of this case were unfair or blemished with arbitrariness, Further, in terms of restitution of confiscated property, the Court found that the Kosovo Assembly is the responsible body to approve a Law on Property Restitution, as per recommendations of the Comprehensive Status Proposal for Kosovo, Annex VII, Article 6 (1) and Article 143 of the Constitution, in connection to Article 2 (13) of the Annex XII (Legislative agenda), Considering that such a law has not been adopted yet, the Court reminds the authorities of the Republic of Kosovo of their obligation to decide upon an “independent mechanism to formulate the political, legal and institutional framework to address issues of property restitution”