Ibar-Lepenac Denies Demolishing Gazivode Motel
At the first hearing in the Basic Court in southern Kosovska Mitrovica, Ibar-Lepenac's representatives said a ministry inspectorate, not the company, demolished the motel on Lake Gazivode.
The Basic Court in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica held the first hearing on August 12 in the lawsuit the Jaksic family filed over the demolition of the beach bar and the “Jezero” motel on Lake Gazivode near Zubin Potok. The defendant is Faruk Mujka, director of the company “Ibar-Lepenac”, and his legal representatives used the hearing to shift the weight of the entire dispute: the demolition, they claim, was not carried out by the company, but by an inspectorate of the relevant ministry.
The hearing came two weeks after the building was leveled, at a point when the lawsuit can no longer stop the demolition, only establish who is responsible for it and how much the owner lost.
What Preceded the Demolition
In mid-July, “Ibar-Lepenac” served the Jaksic family with a demand to vacate the property, arguing that the building stood on land belonging to the company. The family responded with a lawsuit and asked the court for a temporary injunction to block the demolition until the dispute was resolved.
The deadline the company had given the owners expired, and the motel was demolished on July 30, despite the pending request for an injunction. That erased the original subject of the dispute, the building itself, leaving only the question of compensation.
The Jaksic family appears in the proceedings as the owner of both structures, the motel and the beach bar beside it, both demolished in the same operation on the lakeshore.
Who Demolished the Jezero Motel?
At the first hearing, the judge accepted a motion to hear Jordan Jaksic and Mujka as parties to the case. The family’s lawyer, Vasilije Arsic, said the defense of the injured party had laid out its arguments and, at the same time, pointed to a violation of the law.
He also announced an on-site inspection, at which the damage would be recorded with the court, an expert witness and the plaintiff present, followed by an expert assessment to determine its value. Arsic himself says the Jaksic family has already suffered permanent damage.
“Then we enter a phase of the proceedings that grows harder by the day, because permanent damage has already been done to the plaintiff, but we hope that respect for the rule of law in this legal system will get us to the goal, meaning that Jordan Jaksic will see it materialize, that is, be compensated for the damage done to him,” Arsic said after the hearing.
The defense’s argument opened a question no authority had raised until now: if the company that had demanded the property be vacated did not carry out the demolition, then a contractor exists who has not been named anywhere. Arsic asked that both the prosecution and the police be brought into the case.
“If we live within a legal framework that guarantees legal certainty, then the prosecution and the police need to step in, so we can see who illegally demolished a building owned by the Jaksic family,” the lawyer said.
Seventeen Buildings on the Same Shore
The Jezero motel is not an isolated case. Authorities in Pristina have demolished 17 buildings owned by Serbs on the Gazivode shore, using the same justification applied to this case: that they were built on land belonging to “Ibar-Lepenac”. New demolitions on the same shore have also been announced.
That is why the Jaksic family’s case reaches beyond a single lawsuit over a single building. It is the first case in which the court will visit the shore, record the damage and, if the defense holds to the same claim, will have to determine who physically carried out the demolition. The next steps are the hearing of Jaksic and Mujka as parties, the on-site inspection and the expert assessment.
