12 NGOs consider Lumez statements to media unacceptable

They have said that the language used by the State Prosecutor is unacceptable and that it constitutes violation of freedom of speech and public opinion information.

This is our response text of 12 NGOs

We civil society organisations through this reaction express our concerns about the chief state prosecutor's public statements. Alexander Lumezi, directed to the media after their reports concerning his meeting with senior officials of the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

The language used by the State Prosecutor is unacceptable and constitutes a violation of freedom of speech and public opinion information. In his letter, State Chief Prosecutor lynches the media, blackmails them and calls them “associates of groups and criminal structures”. If there were such information as he stated, then he would have to conduct investigations and not that through such statements, he would try to blackmail and threaten the media.

Such statements by the chief prosecutor spread inefficiency in his work and did not take concrete action in achieving results in fighting organised crime and corruption at high levels. Many of the cases that are being prosecuted in the State Prosecutor and other public relatives have not yet received a merit response and continue to drag away.

From these times we isolate ourselves:

Aphera “proto 2”, which for a year and a half has no concrete results, despite concrete evidence presented to the media;

The public charges of Hashim Rexhepi, former governor of the Central Bank, in which the top state official includes, including former Prime Minister Thaci;

The signal's public charges by Kosovo Tax Administration for tax manipulation;

The contract, linked between state-owned companies Bectel-Enka, which allegedly deliberately changed the route for personal use, adds to the issue of expropriations for the Pristina highway ♫ Prizren;

Privatisation of the electricity distribution along with production capacities of three hydropower plants;

Forecast of many criminal cases, including those of corruption;

Emin Beqiri's former Economic Crimes Director case;

The pardoning of debts from water managers worth 58m euros, favouring only one category of businesses;

Car counterpart monopoly.

Furthermore, the publication of “Proto 3” in which Chief Prosecutor Lumezi is involved is probably the answer to the state prosecutor's inefficiency in investigating and bringing all involved to justice.

In view of the whole situation, we ask the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council to comply with constitutional and legal competencies to hold the chief state prosecutor in charge of his lynching charges against the media. We also seek to investigate claims of his closeness with PDK officials and the effects they may have on the work of the chief state prosecutor.

We remind the KKP that the chief state prosecutor should at any time take care of his integrity and prosecutorial system, as well as represent impartiality and professionalism during his exercise of duties.

Support organizations:

Kosovo Institute for Justice IKD

Organization Get Up

Group for Jury and Political Studies

Kosovo Democratic Institute HINA KDI

IPO Progress Initiative

KIPRED Institute

GAP Institute

Columbus Institute

INDEP Institute

Walk it out.

Clark

Institute for Development (D4D)