Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Spring 2017, Volume 43, No. 1 | Page 26

Kosovo
26
room, although Daka disputed this since he
was not permitted to witness the search.
He was then arrested and held in custody
on suspicion of murder.
Ballistics tests showed that the gun was
in fact the murder weapon. And further in-
vestigation showed that Daka did owe Hoti
a large sum of money and that Hoti was de-
manding repayment. Daka was then indict-
ed for murder by the local prosecutor.
During the investigation, Daka’s son, a
police officer, was interviewed. He said
that he had visited his father in jail and de-
manded to know from his father if he had
committed the murder. If so, the son would
have to seek reconciliation with the victim’s
family according to the ancient Albanian
Code of Kanun, which authorizes blood re-
venge unless there is reconciliation.
Daka adamantly denied any involve-
ment. He insisted that Hoti’s girlfriend was
the real murderer, and that the police had
planted her gun under his pillow. In fact,
the investigation revealed that Hoti and his
girlfriend had argued all that day, providing
her with a motive.
Daka retained a competent local defense
attorney who had undergone some training
in the U.S. He filed a motion to suppress
the evidence obtained in the search. The
case was transferred to EULEX because the
actions of the local police and prosecutor
were under scrutiny, and a EULEX prosecu-
tor from Poland was then assigned to the
case. I was on the trial panel along with
a judge from the UK and a Kosovo judge.
Since Kosovo criminal procedure did not
allow for addressing the suppression issue
pre-trial, it had to be addressed at the trial
itself, and the parties agreed that this issue
would be the immediate focus. The local
prosecutor and numerous police officers
were then subpoenaed to testify about the
circumstances of the search, and they were
outraged that their actions were being
called into question for the very first time,
especially by a panel with two foreigners.
We noticed every day that two burley look-
ing young men were sitting in the front row
and glaring at us. We learned that these
were the loan shark’s sons.
After hearing the evidence, we agreed
unanimously that the search was illegal.
There was no written search warrant or ver-
bal order, nor did any of the exceptions out-
lined in the procedure code apply, such as
consent or exigent circumstances. We then
declared the murder weapon inadmissible.
Without the murder weapon, the prosecu-
tion’s case collapsed and we rele