Judicial in the north is implementing Kosovo laws

After nearly two decades of parallel functioning of the justice system in the four Serb-run northern municipalities where Serbia's laws were implemented, from last year, the Brussels Agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, has begun the judicial integration, which is now implementing the laws of the Republic of Kosovo.

Judges and prosecutors in northern Kosovo, according to authorities, are working smoothly and respecting Kosovo laws.

In the Constitutional Prosecutor, located in northern Mitrovica, in the Bosnjak's “Lagen”, chief prosecutor Fatmir Syla said that since the justice system began operating in that part of Kosovo, the number of criminal cases has also begun to decrease.

From the beginning, I can say that these last two or three months see a decline in criminality because potential crime leaders already know they can deal with law”, Syla said.

Even at the Kosovo Judiciary Council, they say integration of the justice system in the north is largely going well.

Kosovo Judiciary Council chief Nehat Idrizi told Radio Free Europe that in addition to some minor problems in the division of the matter, there are currently no problems and others at the north court.

“Integration is done. The important thing is that there are no incidents. Judges and staff both have mutual reports and respect. There are some issues that need to be settled, the subject sharing issue, and it will also be discussed about the validity of decisions, where some things that require greater commitment” will be clarified, Idriz said.

On October 27th last year, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci had decreed 40 judges and 13 prosecutors, mostly Serbs who, according to the presidency, had pledged to implement Kosovo's laws and Constitution.

Chief Prosecutor Fatmir Syla shows that in the prosecution he is running, the integration of Serbian prosecutors has been done and jobs, as he said, are continuing smoothly.

There are 10 integrated prosecutors and 24 aid staff workers who have been found very well. They don't have any difficulty in their work, they're working. A single challenge has been the lack of translation from the Serbian language into Albanian and vice versa, but the issue has already been regulated and translators employed. So we don't have any trouble with integration and work that prosecutors”, Syla said.

On February 14th, the chairman of the Foundation Court in Mitrovica, Nikola Kabashiq, the Kosovo Judiciary Council had offered him the resignation from the post of chairman.

The Kosovo Judiciary Council, as it has indicated, has written down and in other forms accepted requests from judges, staff support and judicial system partners, that this resignation is not accepted.

We haven't approved the resignation and he's already started work and he's working. The reasons have been personal, but the important thing is that he's back and the process is going on normally”, said Nehat Idrizi, the KDR leader.

From February 2015, when the first justice agreement has been reached in Brussels, Albanian and Serbian judges and prosecutors in the north have worked on separate systems until a few months ago, when Serbian judges and prosecutors agreed to decree before the president of Kosovo. After that, they work in joint objects and on the basis of Kosovo laws. /Rel/