The first meeting of the “Justice Access Forum” in Podujeva Municipality

Podujeva, August 6, 2013 – FOL Movement, within the project “Getting closer people to justice institutions”, which is funded by the American people through USAID / ATRC, held the first meeting for the formation of the “Justice Access Forum” in Podujeva Municipality. At this forum were representatives of the Court, Police, representatives of the Chamber of Attorneys, NGOs, media and interested citizens in the municipality of Podujeva.
Kenan Tora, Project Coordinator at FOL Movement, initially presented to the participants the idea of the formation of the forum and its goals, and then Granit Thaci, the local coordinator of FOL Movement, presented the findings on the difficulties encountered to access the information on court cases, on the attempts to monitor hearing sessions on the cases of corruption and abuse of authority. He stated that even the most basic information such as the number of the cases that are in the court of Podujeva, has been impossible to obtain from the court in question, thus we had to contact Kosovo Judicial Council to provide these information.

Minir Hoti, a judge, informed that according to the new law, cases of corruption and abuse of authority now are in charge of the Department for Serious Crimes of the Basic Court in Pristina, and all the cases were transferred there and no longer are in Podujeva, but the transferred cases have been recorded in the database. In addition to this, he said that there is a monitor to inform interested parties about the time of the court hearings but he couldn’t tell how functional this monitor was. Likewise, Mr. Hoti stressed the lack of capacity in the court of Podujeva and the large number of the cases which harden the work of judges.
Hasan Përvetica, a lawyer said that in Kosovo’s justice system were done only experiments and the results of reforms were minor. Përvetica also mentioned the lack of a residential prosecutor in Podujeva and except of delays in proceeding there are also delays in the enforcement of verdicts.

During the discussion Fadil Halimi, a journalist stated that during his work as a journalist he has monitored hearings and affirmed that there are difficulties in accessing relevant information in court and he hoped that the meetings of the Justice Access Forum will have a positive impact in this matter.
Fatmir Potera, from Kosovo Police promised his support to the forum and noted that the lack of a residential prosecutor in Podujeva is causing problems and delays to the work of Kosovo Police.

Nexhat Tovërlani, a reporter from Koha Ditore said that there are cases where court officials seem to be uninformed about their competences. He then said that once he had to contact the Kosovo Judicial Council to provide accurate information since that court officials had no idea about the respective case.
Malsor Neziri a citizen from Podujeva told a personal case of his own, where the trial had lasted 10 years, and expressed his concern about the impact that can be made on certain judges from interested parties.

All participants expressed their support to continue the work of the Forum because they believe that they can have a positive impact in improving the performance of the justice system.

FOL Movement hopes the Forum meetings will be regular in future.
This project is funded by the American people through USAID / ATRC.