Hamza: DPK Seeks Changes to Specialized Chambers Law

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) submitted a draft law amending the Law on Specialized Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office to the Assembly in Pristina on September 21. According to Serbian News Media, the bill was filed by the DPK parliamentary group, five days after the Specialized Chambers in The Hague handed down a first instance verdict against former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

The initiative is led by DPK president Bedri Hamza. He argues the draft does not touch the court’s existing mandate and does not seek to halt the investigations for which the institution was established, only to define more precisely the legal framework under which it operates.

“This court was not imposed by a UN Security Council resolution. It was established by the constitution and by laws adopted on the basis of the constitution, which the Kosovo Assembly passed,” Hamza said when he filed the proposal, Serbian News Media reported.

According to Sputnik, Hamza added that under the DPK draft, the Specialized Chambers would continue to exist and function, but in line with the constitution of Kosovo’s institutions.

What the draft changes

The proposal touches the legal framework under which the Specialized Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office operate, a body grounded in Kosovo’s constitution, constitutional amendment 24, international agreements and a 2015 ruling by the Constitutional Court. The court was set up to try crimes committed during and after the war in Kosovo, and it sits in The Hague.

Hamza defended the proposal by insisting the DPK is not challenging the institution’s mandate itself, nor asking for proceedings already under way to be halted.

“This is not an initiative for impunity. It is an initiative to determine in advance who has the right to rule on what,” the DPK president said.

The trigger: the September 16 verdict

The draft arrived five days after the Specialized Chambers issued its first instance verdict against former KLA leaders. Hashim Thaci and Jakup Krasniqi were each sentenced to 25 years in prison, Kadri Veseli to 18 years, and Rexhep Selimi to 13 years. The court found them guilty of war crimes, including unlawful and arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful killings.

On the same day the DPK filed its draft, students at the University of Pristina held a protest march demanding that the verdict against the former KLA leaders be overturned. Hamza described the mood in Kosovo after the ruling by saying citizens “keep protesting,” adding that this reaction, in his view, cannot be ignored, and that the Assembly cannot act as though the verdict does not concern it.

DPK already walked out of the constitutive session

Filing the draft is not the DPK’s first move regarding the Assembly’s work since the verdict was handed down. The party’s lawmakers had earlier walked out of a session and filed a request with the Constitutional Court against the parliament’s constitution. Despite that request, the session’s chair, Albulena Haxhiu, declared the Assembly constituted, and the DPK’s candidate for deputy speaker was not elected.

In our earlier report on the same story, Haxhiu said she does not tie normalization of relations with Serbia to the fate of the Specialized Chambers, which shows that the question of the court’s standing in Pristina’s institutions reaches beyond the DPK alone and feeds into the broader relationship between Belgrade and Pristina.

What happens next

The fact that the draft comes from an opposition party means its fate depends on a parliamentary majority the DPK does not currently hold. Hamza has not yet said when the Assembly might put the proposal on its agenda, nor whether the DPK is counting on votes from outside its own ranks. The answer will also show how far the September 16 verdict has actually shifted the balance of power in Pristina’s parliament.