Albin Kurti Trial: Suspended Indefinitely

Breaking News:  Albin Kurti’s trial has been suspended indefinitely.  Why?  Is it an act of civil disobedience?  Or is it a gross and fundamental misunderstanding of the law by Kosovo’s defense councils?  The answer lies somewhere in between.
Since day one, Kurti has refused the representation of council.  The kicker is that, in Kosovo, a defendant charged [...]

Kosovo Justice System Needs Court REPORTERS Not Court RECORDERS (Or: Amnesty and OSCE . . . please do more!!!)

Most of you who have stepped into an American courtroom have seen a man or a woman sitting in front of a small, special machine no larger than a laptop typing silently whenever anyone spoke.  Anything you say will be taken down.  And, when you read the resulting transcript, you will see that everything was taken down, [...]

Albin Kurti out of house detention (finally) and a clarification to both Robert Marquand of ABC News and Louis Sell

As you probably already know, Albin Kurti was released from house detention last week after  the prosecution consented to his release.  Yes, it’s about damn time and I’m glad that UNMIK’s Department of Justice has done the right thing.  Yes, it’s too little, too late.  But then again, to maximize my use of cliches in one post:  [...]

Why the hell is Albin Kurti Still in House Detention? (Or: Why is UNMIK Shooting Itself in the Foot?)

The detention woes of Albin Kurti have been going on for way too long.  It’s time to demand a change . . . NOW.
After the 10 February 2007 incident, Albin Kurti was “detained on remand,” which means he had to stay in jail pending the investigation without the possibility of paying bail.  For the most [...]

Amnesty International Has Its Say About Albin Kurti (And Gets Most of It Completely Wrong)

Amnesty International published a report within the last few days that the Albin Kurti case is a “politically motivated” one. To support that, they included some arguments, which are peppered with many cites to the Provisional Criminal Procedure Code of Kosovo — the governing law in Kosovo regarding criminal procedure. In my quest to provide a [...]

Albin Kurti Trial . . . Delayed (And some inconsistencies by those who report it, ahem Vetevendosje)

I just landed in Kosovo a couple days ago and will be here for a few weeks to report on things. Like clockwork, electricity was not working.
I had a chance to see the court session of the Kurti trial on 4 December. Not the greatest witness called by the prosecution. He seemed [...]

Albin Kurti and Vetevendosje: Clarification

I usually let sleeping dogs lie on certain issues. But I feel I had to comment on the following statement published in Newsletter 70 of the Vetevendosje website (www.vetevendosje.org). It reads:

The prosecution will present the witnesses against Albin. They are all police officers. Albin has not called any witnesses for his [...]