There is no courage to seize illegal property

In an effort to establish an adequate legislation on confiscation of illegal property, Kosovo's Assembly earlier approved the draft law on expanded competence of property in the first place.

However, according to representatives of organisations monitoring the work of the courts, it is stressed that there has been legislation in Kosovo on this issue, but there has been no courage to seize illegally acquired property.

Betim Musliu, director of the Kosovo Institute for Justice, tells Free Europe Radio that even this law, as well as other laws, is formal if they fail to implement in practice.

Kosovo's “Law Institute has made comments on this bill and in this case we have an advantage in some respects, but it has practically never been a problem to seize illegal assets. The problem is law enforcement, which in this case are prosecutors and judges, who in no case have the courage to make demands and apply the seizure of property acquired through criminal activities. The problem in Kosovo is not in laws, the problem lies with people of the missing integrity, to implement the legal framework we have”, Musliu points out.

On the other hand, Isuf Zeynep from the organisation Democracy Plus says Kosovo has needed a better legal basis to reach the seizure of illegal property of senior government officials.

“The change of this law has come as institutions such as the Prosecution have complained that with the current legal base in force it is impossible to come up to efficient seizures of property, as the law is unmet. The prosecution has identified that the current law has been confused and there has been durability, something not allowed in one article has been allowed in another, in particular in officials when the time has come to decide on the seizure of illegal property. In principle, in the new bill, a large number of problems that the law has had in place for” avoids, Zeyna points out.

The first-read adoption of the draft law for expanded competencies of property seizures has prompted reactions by opposition MPs.

Commission for Legissation Chairman Albulen Haxhiu, deputy from the Vetevendosje Movement, has stressed that this bill is not aimed at fighting organised crime and corruption.

This bill is aimed at amnestying the corrupt because again, as with the current regulation, the burden of testing falls on the prosecution organ, the Prosecutor. This arrangement so far has resulted in failure because due to the seized justice system and lack of professionalism, prosecutors have failed to verify illegal property”, Haxhiu has written.

According to the official data of 2017, the value of seized property and goods and seized in Kosovo is over 16m euros. These assets and goods have been illegally acquired.

The value of confiscated property, which annually does not reach more than 1m euros, according to Zeyna from Democracy Plus, is low in the highest rate of seized wealth.

Kosovo has failed to seize illegally acquired property, and this is based on the prosecution's reports where seizures are seen as ridiculous and don't exceed half a million euros per year, while there are temporary seizures and seizures of up to 30m euros per year. Which means, in the phase of the investigation they sequentially sequentially sequentially, but most of that property is returned to accused persons. So the prosecution fails to convince the courts that such an asset has been illegal”, says Zeynep.

Through the draft law on expanded competencies for the seizure of property, government officials had stressed that the seizure of any property acquired by committing criminal acts is being targeted.

Kosovo Government Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri has stressed that it is important to increase efficiency in the seizure of illegally acquired property.

He has pledged that in the next two years an efficiency will be shown in the fight against organised crime and corruption.