The Department for Administrative Matters of the Basic Court in Pristina annulled the Kosovo government’s decision on the expropriation of land in the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok made in May last year. The police bases that were built on these plots before the expropriation procedure started, however, remain in place, Dragutin Nenezić, the legal representative of one of the residents whose land was expropriated, told KoSSev. He claims that the Basic Court did not address the situation on the ground, but also announced the request for the removal of the bases after the final judgment.
The verdict, which KoSSev had insight into, states that it was passed at the end of last year in an administrative dispute initiated by Serbs from the North of Kosovo – M.J., represented by Dragutin Nenezić and J.J. from Zubin Potok, represented by Marko Jakšić, against the Kosovo government.
The lawsuit was filed on June 21 last year with the aim of annulling government decision 09/142.
The main hearing was held on December 15 last year, and just a few days later the court decided to accept the lawsuit and annul the preliminary decision on land expropriation.
It is a decision approving the expropriation of property for, as the document states, „realization of infrastructure projects of public interest.“
The decision covers the cadastral areas in Leposavic and Zubin Potok, namely – Bistrica, Saljska Bistrica, Dren, Lesak, Kosutovo and Brnjak, Zubin Potok, Velji Breg, Banje and Gornji Jasenovik.
The court assessed that the Kosovo government did not clearly explain and clarify why it is necessary to expropriate property in this particular case, and that it did not specify to owners what the expropriated land would be used for and how the legal public purpose in the case of expropriation would be carried out.
An appeal against this verdict can be filed to the Court of Appeals within 15 days from the day of its receipt.
The case was returned to the Kosovo government for reconsideration.
Nenezić: Everything has been returned to the beginning, the bases remain
The representative of one of the plaintiffs, Dragutin Nenezić, in a statement for KoSSev last night, confirmed that the court’s decision had been delivered to him.
He says that the ruling on the annulment of the decision of the Kosovo government on expropriation applies to all owners of plots in Zubin Potok, and not only the property of the individual he represented.
„The entire decision was annulled with all the parcels covered by it,“ said Nenezić.
According to his knowledge, the same judgment was passed previously in the procedure that the citizens of the Leposavic municipality initiated against the Kosovo government, also due to the expropriation of land.
„Now everything has been completed, it was also canceled for Leposavic and Zubin Potok and everything has been returned to the beginning.“
Nenezić announces the possibility of the Kosovo government filing an appeal against the decision of the Basic Court.
„But in general, there is not much room because the decision was overturned because it was wrong. And even if they file an appeal, for such a bad decision – the court will confirm again in our favor. It would definitely not be successful,“ Nenezić assesses.
However, he expects that the Kosovo government will make a new decision on expropriation, stating that this is the essence of the judgment of the Basic Court.
„When it happens, what it will look like, we will see, this is just the first step,“ he added.
This legal representative specifies that the situation on the ground will not change for the time being, that is, the police bases will remain where they were constructed.
„The court did not deal with it. In the verdict, they do not refer to the situation on the ground at all, but only deal with the decision for which they said that it was bad. Our argument from the very beginning was that the basic problem is that something has already been done, so they tried to legalize something that was done (construction of police bases) with a decision. The court did not go into that part, but leaves open the possibility that if a new decision is made, in a new procedure, that it will be better than the previous one, and the situation on the ground will be legalized,“ he said.
Nevertheless, he announces that he will submit a request to the Kosovo Police for the removal of the bases, after the judgment on expropriation becomes final.
„We will certainly ask the Kosovo Police to remove the bases. We will wait for the judgment to become final. We hope that the government will not appeal, if it does, we will wait for the decision to be made on this appeal and then we will ask for the removal before a new decision is made,“ he said.
And if the Kosovo government makes a new decision, Nenezić explains that they will try to overturn it „if necessary“, that is, depending on its content.
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