Appeal reverses the decision of the Constitutional Court in the "American Hospital" case

The Court of Appeal has overturned the ruling of the Pristina Court of Appeal to dismiss the indictment in the case known as the “American Hospital.” The second-instance court found a number of violations in the case involving eight defendants for various criminal offenses, including forgery of documents and laundering of over 3.4 million euros.

The Court of Appeals found a number of violations in the Basic Court's ruling, with which it dismissed the indictment in the American Hospital case, where it is suspected of laundering over 3.4 million euros.
The second instance annulled the decision of the Basic Court.

"The Panel assesses that the first instance court acted outside the boundaries of the indictment, namely outside the time period for which the defendants are accused, by incorrectly interpreting and changing the factual situation and by incorrectly ascertaining the achievement of the absolute statute of limitations for the criminal offenses described in the indictment, which also led to the incorrect application of the criminal law," the Appeals Chamber ruling in the "American Hospital" case states.

In this case, the owner of "Medbrand KS", Edlira Galanxhi-Malaj, along with her company, are accused; then the company "American Hospital Kosova" along with the main shareholder Klodian Allajbeu and director Ilgi Larashi; "Kosovo Cardiac Center" with director Ekrem Lluka and its owner, Korab Lluka.

The Basic Court had dismissed the indictment. But the Appeals Court assessed that when the decision was made, the first instance court also misinterpreted the factual situation described in the indictment.

The Basic Court's ruling stated that the investigative actions regarding the forged documents affected the years 2014 and 2015, which makes the investigations unlawful. However, the Appeals Court found that in this case the Prosecution's actions were in accordance with the law, since the prosecution claimed that the documents were used for money laundering purposes at a later period.
"In counts I, II, III, V and VI of the indictment, the defendants are incriminated for actions that used forged documents by presenting contracts, agreements and other forged documents to the Kosovo Tax Administration and the Kosovo Police during March 2021 and June 2023, with the aim of financial gain and justification of transactions," the Appeals ruling states.

To dismiss the indictment, the presiding judge of the Basic Court, Vesel Ismaili, had assessed that when documents were signed by an authorized person, the signature was original, but the content was false, and in this case he concluded that it was not a question of document forgery. For this, he used a commentary on the Criminal Code of Serbia, from 1981, as a reference.

also CHRONICLE June 30, 2025 Indictment against eight defendants for money laundering and document forgery is dropped

This reasoning of Judge Ismaili was also rejected by the panel of Appeal judges, composed of Mentor Bajraktari, Afërdita Bytyçi and Ferit Osmani, who elaborated on Article 390 of the Criminal Code of Kosovo.

“Article 390, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Kosovo provides for the basic form of the criminal offense of forgery of documents, which stipulates that: 'Whoever prepares a forged document, alters the original document with the intention of using that document as the original or knowingly uses the forged or altered document as the original, shall be punished by a fine or imprisonment of up to four (4) years. While paragraph 3 of this article stipulates that: 'Whoever commits the offense provided for in paragraphs 1 or 2 of this article as a member of a group of people, shall be punished by a fine and imprisonment of one (1) to eight (8) years'. Therefore, this criminal offense is committed in several alternative forms: Preparation of a forged document (when a new false document is created); Alteration of the original document (when the content or form is modified); Use of a forged document (as the original, knowing that it is forged)", the verdict states.

The Court of Appeals has returned the case to the Basic Court for reconsideration and has requested it to eliminate the violations, to accurately determine the time of the commission of the criminal offenses and to apply the criminal law in force, as well as "to provide clear and complete legal reasoning, issuing a fair and legally based decision."