Judiciary north of Mitrovica ready to judge with Kosovo laws

With its implementation, it is believed that parallel courts in northern Kosovo municipalities, inhabited by Serb majority, are disappearing on the basis of Serbia's laws.

The head of the Foundation Court in Mitrovica has been appointed Nikola Kabashiq. On October 27th, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has decreed 40 judges and 13 prosecutors, who, according to a communique issued by the presidency, had pledged to implement Kosovo's laws and Constitution.

The Constitutional Court is located in northern Mitrovica, in “Bosniaks' neighborhood”. The chief judge there is Thanksgiving. He says there are conditions and enough space for work.

I think that with our return, the integration of judges, the situation will be better with regard to combating crime in northern Kosovo and that very soon you will see the results in this direction”, Syla says.

As a problem, Syla singles out the absence of translators, since the subjects are mostly in Albanian, while other languages are needed, especially in the Serbian language.

There are 10 Serbs and 8 Albanians in this court working 18 judges.

Meanwhile, Mitrovica Court of Appeals leader Milan Bigovic says that following the decree of judges and prosecutors to Kosovo's president on October 27th, three days later, work optimism has begun.

As far as I know, although I haven't known very well, because this is the input into another system, the number of subjects is large and that years it hasn't been worked on civil subjects”, Bigovic points out.

On the other hand, representatives of the justice system in Kosovo say judges and prosecutors from among the Serb community in the northern part of the country have started working and are working with Kosovo laws. Currently, according to them, no problems have been presented, and jobs are estimated to be doing well.

Kosovo Judiciary Council chief Nehat Idrizi told Radio Free Europe that judges are in their offices and have shared the subjects they will deal with. However, Idrizi stresses that the new staff needs training.

It's normal and takes a little time to accommodate, but so far everything's going okay. They will hold a training at the Academy of Justice, so community judges are not majority. Then they start working. Training is needed to be announced by laws and procedures. Now the goal is to place them in offices and now they have <x1... According to him, the Academy has the training programme under the Brussels Agreement.

Even at the Prosecutorial Council, they say prosecutors' integration is occurring normally and there is no problem or difficulties.

Blerim Isufaj, head of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, told Radio Free Europe, that prosecutors are normally working.

“They may need to get a little more acquainted with our justice system, by our laws. However, I don't have any information about any work jam or something that doesn't work out right now, said Isufaj.

The decree of Serbian judges and prosecutors from northern Kosovo has raised doubts and reactions to how and in what form they have sworn in.