The mayor of Ferizaj, Bajrush Xhemajli, will find out on March 8 whether he will be sent to jail to serve his two-and-a-half-year sentence for dangerous driving, which resulted in the death of another driver in 2009.
Kosovo’s Supreme Court is set to decide on March 8 on whether the Mayor of Ferizaj, Bajrush Xhemajli, will be sent to serve his two-and-a-half-year jail term for causing the death of a passenger in a car accident.
It took more than a year for the Supreme Court to set a date for the hearing, which was requested by the defence lawyers after Pristina District Court on November 2010 found the mayor guilty of causing a car accident that resulted in the death of one person.
The state of Kosovo's judiciary remains a source of concern to the European Union. Its impartiality in trials is open to question, and organized crime, corruption, drug trafficking and money laundering are still seen as rife in the country.
If the decision of the District Court is confirmed by the Supreme Court, Xhemajli should be dismissed from his post and sent to jail for the accident that involved three vehicles on May 2009 on the Pristina-Skopje highway.
The earlier verdict said that Xhemajli, by not respecting traffic rules and exceeding the speed limit, lost control of his vehicle, hit the highway barriers and had a frontal collision with a car whose driver died on the spot.
Other vehicles collided in the pile-up, causing injuries to several other victims, four of which were serious.