Constitutional Court

KI 122/16 Applicant: Riza Dembogaj, requesting constitutional review of Decision CML. No. 6/2016 of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kosovo of 13 September 2016

The Applicant alleges that Decision [CML. No. 6/2016] of 13 September 2016 of the Supreme Court was rendered in violation of his rights guaranteed by Article 31 of the Constitution in conjunction with Article 6 of the ECHR, Article 49 of the Constitution, Article 54 of the Constitution in conjunction with Article 13 of the ECHR and 102 of the Constitution, because the regular courts applied the wrong law in assessing the timeliness of his claim. Accordingly, the Applicant alleged that the regular courts have manifestly erroneously applied and interpreted the law in his case.

The Applicant’s employment relationship with the Kosovo Police Inspectorate was terminated in 2007. The Applicant has challenged the termination decision since 2007, initially in administrative, and subsequently in the court proceedings, which he initiated in 7 November 2007. The date of initiation of courts proceedings, namely the timelines of his appeal, became subject of review of eight regular court decisions which applied three different law, all containing different deadlines for filing appeals, to the dispute of the Applicant. Ultimately, in rejecting the request for protection of legality of the State Prosecutor, the Supreme Court concluded that the initial claim of the Applicant was out of time, however reasoning it based on the Law on IOBK of 2010, not in force when the dispute of the Applicant began.

After assessing the case in its entirety, the Court found that in the Applicant’s case, the law was manifestly erroneously applied and resulted in arbitrary conclusions for the Applicant. Therefore, based on the case law of the ECHR, the Court found that the rights of the Applicant to fair and impartial trial as guaranteed by Article 31 of the Constitution in conjunction with Article 6 of the ECHR, were violated.