JAHJAGA v. SERBIA
Inadmissible
Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;George Nicolaou;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom;Johannes Silvis;Luis López Guerra
1. The applicant, Mr Ibrahim Jahjaga, is a Serbian national who was born in 1946. He is of Albanian ethnic origin and lives in Kosovo. The applicant is represented before the Court by Mr I. Olujić, a lawyer practising in Belgrade. 2. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 3. In 1990 A.A., formally registered as resident in Kosovo, had two foreign-currency accounts with the Kosovo branch of Jugobanka AD. 4. Following the financial collapse of numerous banks in Serbia, in 1998 and 2002 the Serbian Parliament enacted specific legislation providing that foreign-currency deposits held in those banks, including the bank at issue, would be added to the public debt. The legislature went on to set the time-frame (2016) and the amounts, including interest, to be paid back to the banks’ former clients. The legislation also explicitly provided that any foreign currency-related judicial proceedings were to be discontinued. 5. As of 2002, A.A. appears to have had 34,067.07 euros (EUR) in one account and EUR 40,857.37 in another. 6. On 2 April 2004 the Serbian Government adopted a decree stating that anyone with foreign-currency savings in the Kosovo branch of Jugobanka AD would have the same rights as other savers, provided that they could prove that they had been resident in Serbia on 4 July 2002 and were Serbian taxpayers. 7. On 26 August 2004, A.A. formally authorised the applicant, by way of a court-certified document, to “take over all the rights concerning the foreign currency savings (withdrawal of money, its transfer and all other rights concerning the savings)”. 8. As a resident of Kosovo, the applicant is currently not a Serbian taxpayer. As of 2004, however, both A.A. and the applicant had Serbian citizenship. They would appear not to have renounced it thereafter.