The Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, announced that the Draft Law of the State Bureau on the verification and confiscation of unjustifiable assets will soon be sent to the Government and then to the Assembly for approval. She said that after the findings of the Constitutional Court, which declared the law invalid, the issues raised by the Court have been addressed
Ardona Popova
The Ministry of Justice has not drafted a new draft law on the State Bureau for the verification and confiscation of unjustifiable assets, but has made some changes to the existing law, Minister Albulena Haxhiu said on Tuesday.
Months ago, the Law on the State Bureau was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court, which found that four of its articles are contrary to the highest legal act of the state.
Haxhiu, through a press conference, announced that the draft law will soon be sent for approval to the Government and then to the Assembly.
"This is a clear victory for the rule of law and a powerful message to all those who have abused their official position, misused their official position and to all those who, being officials, have created unjustifiable wealth," she said.
She said that after the Court's ruling, the issues that were in conflict with the Constitution were addressed.
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".
"Her changes in the draft law ensure that the new periods of asset verification are only related to the period when the public official has been in office, exceptionally allowing the extension of the verification for five years after the end of the exercise of the public function", she stated. .
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 period of time when a public official has been in office, allowing the bureau to start verifying assets 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 fact, the members of the Assembly approved the Law on the State Bureau for the Verification and Confiscation of Unjustifiable Assets in February 2023. A few days later, Democratic Party officials sent it to the Constitutional Court for verification.
The court declared the Law invalid on June 26, 2024. It provided that all public officials could be subject to asset verification if there are suspicions that it has been acquired illegally.
In addition to the officials, the subject of the verification and confiscation of the unjustifiable wealth was expected to be their family members or third parties, to whom there are doubts that the wealth of the public officials may have been transferred.
The Constitutional Court, in its decision, said that the procedure of verification and confiscation of unjustifiable assets is independent of 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 deemed unjustifiable if the court, based on the evidence, 'believes that a thing is more likely to be or to have happened than not'".
The law, which has been declared invalid, covered the period from February 17, 2008, and the period within ten years from the moment when public officials cease to exercise their functions.
