Constitutional Court

KI06/18, Applicant: Shkumbin Mehmeti, constitutional review of Decision Pzd. No. 94/2017 of the Supreme Court of Kosovo of 13 November 2017

KI06/18 Resolution on Inadmissibility, adopted on 16 January 2019, published on 27.02.2019

Keywords: individual referral, criminal procedure, right to fair trial, the rights of the accused, ratione materiae, inadmissible referral.

The Applicant alleged that the regular courts by rejecting his request for extraordinary mitigation of punishment violated his rights guaranteed by Articles 22 [Direct Applicability of International Agreements and Instruments], 31 [Right to Fair and Impartial Trial ], 32 [Right to Legal Remedies], 33 [The Principle of Legality and Proportionality in Criminal Cases] and 102 [General Principles of the Judicial System] of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo (hereinafter: the Constitution) and Articles 6 (Right to a fair trial) and 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: the ECHR).

The Court, after assessing the case in entirety, concluded that even in cases where the request for extraordinary mitigation of the sentence is not successful, Article 31 of the Constitution, in the light of the interpretation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, is not applicable. Therefore, the Court considered that the Applicant did not fulfill the admissibility criteria established in the Constitution and foreseen by the Law and the Rules of Procedure. Therefore, the Court concluded in this case that the Applicant’s Referral is incompatible ratione materiae with the Constitution, and as such the Referral was declared inadmissible.