A second case against the vetting institutions has been filed at the European Court of Human Rights by Besa Nikëhasani.
Nikëhasani was the first prosecutor to have been dismissed by the Independent Qualification Commission (KPK) on April 17, 2018, a verdict which she appealed at the Special Appeals Chamber (KPA). The KPA, however, confirmed the verdict on December 9.
Whereas the first case against the vetting institutions, filed by Rovena Gashi and Dritan Gina, specifically dealt with their disciplinary powers of the KPA, Nikëhasani’s case focuses on the core of the justice reform, namely the vetting.
The case, communicated on January 25, related to Nikëhasani’s dismissal by the KPA without the right of appeal. The ECtHR’s questions to the parties suggest that the ECtHR may be considering the core question concerning the vetting institutions: do they actually constitute an “independent and impartial tribunal” (art. 6(1) of the European Convention of Human Rights), whether Nikëhasani had a “fair hearing,” and whether she had any possibility of “domestic remedy.”
We will have to wait at least 1–2 years before the ECtHR will come to a verdict, but different from Gashi and Gani’s case, this will be of fundamental importance to the success of the vetting, which by then will not have finished.
One of the main concerns, from the beginning, was precisely whether the vetting institutions indeed constituted an “independent and impartial tribunal.” In time, we will know for sure.
