Small number of corruption convicts lack the quality of charges, non-professional prosecutors

Only 30 per cent of the 800 criminal charges of corruption cases and economic crime handed over to prosecutors have ended with charges.

But even those who are getting up are being rejected, or ending up with loose decisions or minimal penalties.

From the IKD and GLPS say that the few cases handled by corruption are due to the lack of strong and convincing charges by non-professors, who are not showing seriousness and commitment to these cases.

Kosovo Institute for Justice Executive Director Ehat Miftaraj says 70% of the cases are closed to the prosecutor and that they do not have a judicial audit.

He also says prosecutors' access opportunities are very large where they are kept out of the public eye.

“in 2019 in March, the IKD had published the report from monitoring the last three years of the justice system, where it had come up with statistics over 70% of cases closed to the prosecution, and the worst case is that these cases are closed without judicial control, and it means prosecutors are good and they decide whether they will open a case or close it and nobody checks”.

The possibilities for misusing authorisation by prosecutors are very great where the fact that these materials are out of the public eye and away from nongovernmental and hermetic organizations that have made the system legal, so it is imperative that we have judicial control and, on the other hand, more public information, especially in cases of corruption. Since declaring independence, we have no high profile official convicted of actual corruption-cut evidence enough that Kosovo has failed badly in fighting corruption”, he says.

According to Miftaraj, political interference in justice are a public secret, but he says that Kosovo recently in international reports has begun to be called a captured state.

He says that a rapid change in justice should be a priority.

Why there is political interference in justice I think it's a public secret. Kosovo recently in international reports has also begun to be called a captured state. With the very fact that the recent European Commission expert report showed the situation in which the prosecutorial system is located and these experts have been independent, for the sequencing of wealth it is the most obvious message that we have serious problems and a rapid change should be a priority and these should be the first steps Kosovo should take.

Miftaraj even says prosecutors who obstruct the same cases were being promoted.

Kosovo's “in Kosovo due to lack of effective evidence and assessment of the demonstration and discipline we have come to a situation where prosecutors who disrupt those same cases took office and all this lack of control and supervision has certainly brought us into a situation when there will be results in the fight against corruption, but not for concrete”, he says.

Of all cases of criminal charges that one year admit prosecutors to the country, about 40 percent reject them without developing any investigation. And from these counts of criminal charges, politicians and corrupt officials are members.

With the fact that there is no judicial control over the prosecutors' decisions and criminal charges sent by police or citizens, and we have cases where the prosecutor closes the case with two minor paragraphs to the closure of these cases there are no mechanisms that one can meet and don't go through the court at all and when it gives such great independence to prosecutors and you don't have effective accounting mechanisms then certainly even with this misuse of trust that the state has given prosecutors is extremely large, and we shouldn't be surprised why the large number of criminal charges and their throwing of criminal abuses are released, their politicians and then the politicians and then the politicians and the politicians who return them to different cases, he says.

Geze Hoxha from the Group for Political and Jury Studies (GLPS) says the small percentage comes from the lack of will of the human factor to watch corruption cases.

“A percentage lower compared to the level claimed exists in our country with the level of corruption shows that our justice system and the prosecutorial system have big problems”.

“We like GLPS consider that the key and fundamental problems of this system is lack of will, that is, the lack of will in one factor, because other technical conditions are fulfilled and in technical conditions we are talking about with the number of prosecutors then with the number of judges, dignified wages and so forth, even though they are met by some of the fundamental conditions we still have low and not satisfactory results, and that comes from the lack of will to pursue these corruption cases, and it can also be due to fear, even because of different personal ties, and</1) it says.

While its lack of strong and convincing accusations shows unprofession and not seriousness of the commitment required to handle these cases.

The lack of professionalism, seriousness, and dedication required for handling these cases on the part of the prosecutorial system translates into the fact that we have a non-resistent indictment in court which then fails to prove even the guilt of persons who are charged with it.

“Such a thing also argues the outcome of international reports regarding the justice system in Kosovo in recent years, because they have found that Kosovo is behind the recession and is not making aggression, not progress. It can be alleged that such a thing exists, the lack of will to address these issues as a result of the fears and connections these key persons may have, Hoxha tells EO.