ANNUAL REPORT OF NPM 2019 _______________________________________________________________________________________ standards for personal living space per prisoner determine minimum standards, always not including therein the space of the toilet annexes.57 NPM considers that the LEPS should comply with the aforementioned standard for personal living space for prisoners, i.e. that the LEPS should determine the personal living space for prisoner, excluding the sanitary annexe. Complaints for discriminatory treatment During the reporting period, the NPM has received complaints from prisoners convicted of terrorism-related offenses, who claimed to be discriminated against by authorities in terms of benefits, despite fulfilling the legal criteria. The NPM has noted that in certain cases, convicted persons under this category have received these benefits, albeit in very small numbers. In this regard, the NPM notes that Article 92 of LEPS stipulates that the Director of a Correctional Facility may allocate particular privileges to a convicted person who is behaving well and is working hard, following the motion of the team for planning on holding sentence. This issue is further regulated by the Administrative Instruction on House Rules in Correctional Institutions (Articles 60-63), which provides the conditions and ways to be considered by the department when approving a request. The NPM notes that this house rule provides that the decision of the director is final, i.e. the case is ultimately at the discretion of the director. Complaints against the Conditional Release Panel During the reporting period, the NPM received complaints from the convicts against the Conditional Release Panel (hereinafter the CRP) for not-submitting the Rulings to the Convicts who submitted their application and their case was reviewed by this body. Regarding these complaints, the NPM has, based on the complaints received, requested additional information from CRP and recommended the CRP to comply with the obligations towards the applicants for conditional release deriving from the Regulation on the Organization and Functioning of the CRP. Law no. 05/L-129 on Amending and Supplementing the Law no. 04/L-149 on Execution of Penal Sanctions defines the composition of CRP. Pursuant to Article 18, paragraph 2, CRP is comprised as follows: one (1) judge from Supreme Court delegated by the President of the Supreme Court; one (1) judge from Appeal Court delegated by the President of the Appeal Court, and one (1) judge from Basic Court in Prishtina, delegated by the President of the Basic Court. With the aforementioned changes, the CRP now comprises of a fully judicial composition. The NPM reiterates that the Ombudsperson has no jurisdiction over court decisions, except in cases of delay in proceedings 58 . Also, the Regulation on the Functioning and Organization of CRP expressly states that the decisions of the CRP cannot be appealed. Pardon by the President Pardon by the President means the extraordinary executive power of the President to forgive a convicted person of his or her criminal offence and to relieve him or her of the punishment imposed by a court’s CPT - CPT’s minimum standard for personal living space for prisoners, published on 15 December 2015, paragraphs 5-11. For more information see: https://rm.coe.int/16806cc449 58 Law No. 05/L-019 on the Ombudsperson, Article 16.8. 57 27