The legal-criminal aspects of terrorism under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo and Republic of Macedonia

• Main Author: Mensur Morina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Institute for Private Commercial and Competition Law 2019-01-01
• Series: European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences
• Online Access: http://iipccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/186-208.pdf

The activities by various terrorism groups and individuals over the last decades are undoubtedly the main security challenge for many Western states. In the past decades, the target of terrorist attacks were usually senior state officials such as ministers, diplomats, senior military etc, whereby extremist and terrorist groups, by targeting such people tried to put pressure on legal governments of different states and other international factors so that they could achieve their goals, whether political, ideological, religious, financial, criminal, and so on. But after the 70s of the last century, the operational tactics of extremist and terrorist groups have changed drastically, because it is no longer necessary to attack state officials, but rather the target of terrorist attacks are now ordinary citizens. Advancement in methods such as suicide attacks, car-bombs and other methods have made it more difficult for law enforcement to perform their key duty of protecting citizens, as well as to investigate, arrest and punish perpetrators. The use of improvised explosive devices when conducting a violent terrorist act causes large panic among citizens, and destroys material evidence, thus making the work of law enforcement agencies more difficult. The goal of the terrorists, who conduct such attacks, is the great attention that the media pay to such acts. In order for the various states to be as ready as possible to combat extremism, radicalism and international terrorism, a great deal of cooperation is needed, initially within the various agencies of a state, and then also between different states. The joint operations in the arrest of leaders of extremist and terrorist groups have shown that this cooperation is indispensable. The phenomenon of violent extremism that leads to terrorism in Kosovo is an integral part of general criminality, and due to the lack of proper study and treatment, is also causing consequences to our society. With a comprehensive legislative framework for combating violent extremism (LVE) leading to terrorism, in 2016, Kosovo expanded its legislative framework needed to counter new challenges in relation to LVE. The subject of this study is the phenomenon of violent extremism and terrorism in Kosovo, thus focusing on that part of the legislation which mainly deals with Violent Extremism leading to Terrorism, and then elaborating the history, definitions and application of the measures taken by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo as well as the criminal legislation of R. Macedonia in this area.