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Ministry of Justice in Kosovo changes in the law on the confiscation of unjustifiable property

2024-09-03 13:09:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ministry of Justice in Kosovo changes in the law on the confiscation of

Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu

The Ministry of Justice has not drawn up a new draft law for the state Bureau for the verification and confiscation of unjustifiable assets, but has made some changes to the existing law, said the head of this institution, Albulena Haxhiu.

On June 26 of this year, the Constitutional Court declared invalid the Law on the Office for Verification and Confiscation of Unjustifiable Assets, after finding that four of its articles were in conflict with the Constitution.

During a press conference, Haxhiu stated on September 3 that the Ministry of Justice has made four changes to address the findings of the Constitutional Court.

The first issue that is addressed is the retroactivity of the law. Haxhiu said the Constitutional Court found that the long time span could create challenges for the parties involved, placing them in a position of "objective impossibility to provide evidence justifying the origin of their wealth".

"In this regard, the new change has included the concept of objective impossibility. So, as a key procedural element that provides a protective mechanism for those who cannot provide evidence due to the passage of time or the change of circumstances, various factors", said Haxhiu, adding that such an approach guarantees a process fairer for the parties involved in the confiscation procedure.

The second change concerns the clarification of the time period for the verification of assets. Haxhiu said that with the changes, the verification period will only be related to the time period when a public official has been in office, allowing the bureau to start asset verification only in the period up to five years after a public official has finished exercising the function. .

This change, said Haxhiu, protects officials "from endless investigations".

Haxhiu said that the third issue addressed is that of the Supervisory Commission and the separation of powers. The constitutionalist has requested to change the composition of the commission. The new changes, according to the MoD, have restructured the composition of the commission, including three members who will be elected by the Assembly, including the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and the director of the artificial intelligence unit.

"As soon as we have the statements of the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Kosovo, which are related to the financial statement and if the law is in accordance with the acquis communautaire, we will process the version with changes again. According to the announcements I have from the cabinet, within the week we will have these two statements and we will immediately proceed to the Government and then to the Assembly", said Haxhiu, requesting that the deputies of the Assembly of Kosovo support this law when it is sent to the session. plenary.

In the law declared invalid by the Constitutional Court, it was foreseen that all public officials in Kosovo could be subject to verification of wealth if there were suspicions that it had been acquired illegally.

In addition to the officials, the subject of the verification and confiscation of the unjustifiable property was also expected to be their family members or third parties, which means the persons to whom there may have been suspicions that the public officials' property had been transferred.

The constitutionalist said that the procedure of verification and confiscation of unjustifiable property is independent from the criminal procedure, "the standard of proof is not the criminal one of 'reasonable suspicion', but the civil one of 'probability assessment' and according to which, the property is considered unjustified, if the court, based on the evidence, "believes that something is more likely to be or have happened than not".

The law, which has been declared invalid, included the period from February 17, 2008, and the period within ten years from the moment when public officials cease to exercise their function./REL