Tahiri: Misc officials get out of the way

Justice Minister Abelard Tahiri, in an interview, said this department has been necessary since, according to him, only in this way, the justice system is more efficient in fighting organised crime and corruption.

My “Objectives from which I started as justice minister were, to create either a special court or a special department, which will judge the subjects coming from the Special Prosecutor, so that those subjects don't go to basic courts, whether in Prizren, Gjilan and Pec, but be tried in a special department, namely in Pristina, after we have special prosecutor, this we have achieved, I'm happy that the process of recruiting these judges has been a lot of loan”

“ ... today we have fairly creditable judges who are part of this department and normally, our initiative that has come up to the establishment of this department, has led us to be more efficient, in the fight against organised crime and corruption, you know that the special prosecution in its mandate has the fight against organised crime, terrorism and the war crimes issue, and the establishment of a department that will judge these special prosecutors has been more necessary in order to be more effective in fighting organised crime and<1.

Tahiri said that all senior officials who are involved in corrupt relations, whether they are judges and prosecutors, should leave the way, as, according to him, Kosovo should not remain hostage, neither to politicians nor to judges and prosecutors.

“ ... processors and people who fail to meet their mandate, whether they are judges or prosecutors, should give way, because Kosovo cannot be held hostage by anyone, or by politicians, judges and prosecutors, so I think it's very important that we are on a good path, we have success, but we expect a greater commitment”

Fighting corruption and organised crime is also one of the criteria for Kosovo getting the green light for liberalisation.

According to him, Kosovo has already met the criteria set by the European Commission for liberalisation, until it says separate states of the European Union have no political will to reach a consensus for a visa liberalisation for Kosovo.

<x0mormically the war in Kosovo against organised crime and corruption, cannot be linked to 42 cases of success because there are hundreds and thousands of other cases that are in Kosovo's fundamental prosecutors and our courts that are important enough so for the fight against organised crime and corruption, we cannot say that we succeed, we are positively assessed by the European Commission, which has also recommended liberalisation for our citizens, as Kosovo has fulfilled the criteria that are set forth by the EU, then it is the question of political will apart from the political states that therefore follow the political will to reach a consensus for visa liberalisation, we have met the criteria that are set by the EU, and then there is a matter of political will, but for political will that is political will, so that the political will to reach a consensus for visa liberalisation of Kosovo, and we have been able to meet it.

Tahiri said that Kosovo has failed in terms of seizure of property, of this failure, Tahiri says they have also led the two international institutions that were engaged in Kosovo, UNMIK and EULEX.

“Confiscating property has been one of the weakest points in the Republic of Kosovo, now 20 years, I think here we have failed, there has been a kind of a common failure even with the international institutions that we have a part of rule of law, UNMIK earlier in EULEX, so I think that Kosovo is not a successful story in terms of confiscating property by criminal work, so I think it has pushed me into re-signation of the law, coming up with a new law, and I think we've reached with recruits and with it, and with it, a lot of professionals in our system that will address the seizure issue, an issue that is really important to the destruction of criminal gangs everywhere that happen, whether it's part of politics or businesses, so the weakening of criminal gangs only happens when they're confiscated.

Tahiri said the creation of an International Tribunal who condemns Serbian crimes has been one of the best initiatives Kosovo has taken from post-wars, even he says Serbia is not willing to co-operate with Kosovo institutions to bring these perpetrators to justice.

I think this has been one of the best initiatives that has been undertaken since post-wars from our institutions, I think it's an extremely important initiative, so we can't have peace in this region as long as criminals move free, 20 years later we can't address the massacres that have been committed in Kosovo and those people, part of them, still act free in Serbia, because Serbia doesn't have the will to co-operate with Kosovo institutions, that these people brought to justice, so it's an initiative that I believe will come up with a positive result, the creation of this Tribullal, we will still work the argument why it is important that they have to do this place of justice.

A very current issue, which Minister Tahiri has been invited to report to the Commission for Legislation, is also the process of recruiting young swimmers, which, according to Tahiri, doubled these swimmers has been made in order for citizens to have material services closer to themselves.

While for statements of position that this process of recruiting new swimmers has been scandalous and irregular, Tahiri views them as political noises and without facts.

“We have no political noise, but no arguments and facts about why such a process has been compensated, so we have no circumstance with any compensation, but with a professional process, and I am already committed to increasing the number of swimmers in the Republic of Kosovo and not having monopoly and circulation of millions to some individuals, but this lies to a greater number of swimmers in Kosovo<1> /Exaonline/