Osman and Hoti violate Law for AKI

The two highest state leaders have violated the Law for the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI), as they have not reached consensus on the appointment of the new director of this agency.

Last week was the legal deadline, when President Vjosa Osmani and incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti would have to jointly appoint the new AKI director.

Based on the Law for AKI, Article 5.3 determines that the <x0 president of the Republic of Kosovo, together with the prime minister, appoints the AKI director together within 20 days of work from the day the position remains at large”.

Former director Kreshnik Gashi was asked by incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti to free his post on December 17th, 2020. In this request, Hoti was also supported by the president's U.d., Osman, but none of them have commented on the reasons for this request.

Disagreement for Candidates

Before the end of 2020, incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti had sent the name of Latif Merovci, as the main nominated to the presidency. Merovci, who was appointed deputy director of AKI in 2015, was not supported by the president's U.D., Vjosa Osmani.

Sources within the government say the prime minister had another name.

President “'s office says it has made the proposal, as the Law and Constitution” predicts. Osman's proposal is unknown.

The incumbent's “prime minister has rejected the president's U.d. proposal through a television interview”, Olympics Free Europe, Osman adviser Bekim Kupina, told Radio.

According to him, this issue will be addressed “following elections”.

The prime minister in office, Hoti, had declared for a local television that he could not accept Osman's proposals for the head of AKI, as according to him, they are people without “experience and maturity” to lead with this institution.

But, in the government, however, they do not rule out the possibility of the new AKI director being appointed before early parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for February 14th.

“Communification is continuing, but there is no new development in this direction. It is not ruled out that the new director of AKI is appointed before the elections”, Antigona Bajzak, adviser to incumbent Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, told Radio Europe.

National Security at risk

Security field experts name the lack of consensus for this sensitive state position institutional responsibility.

Besa Kabashi-Ramaj, says this failure shows national security, continues not to be the priority of the political class.

This is a test for the country, as two politicians who have confidence to lead with state institutions are failing to reach consensus to find a competent personality to guide AKI and keep the country's security under control”, Kabashi-Ramaj told Radio Free Europe.

She adds that in addition to Hoti's Osman, the responsibility includes the entire political classes, which are aimed at coming to power.

If we look at the political platforms that have been presented, it can be seen that the focus is entirely elsewhere, oriented in populist politics, but there is actually no clarity from political parties, whether they understood how important national and human security is”, Kabashi-Ramaj said.

Bedri Elez, director of the Kosovo Institute for International Studies, considers that failure to appoint the new AKI director, could be promoted until after the formation of institutions, which will take place after the 14 February elections.

But, according to him, this delay could have serious consequences for Kosovo's national security.

There are serious concerns that partnership with our international friends could be violated. This (AKI) institution turns out to be non-recensible and the access to information is huge, especially when the institution dealing with national security, has no appointed director,”, Elesi said.

Frequent AKI Changes Serious Problem

In the last six years alone, three directors have been changed to AKI. The only one to have completed a full mandate has been the first director, the Smaj Union, who was appointed to the post in February 2009. A year after the reappointed, in 2015 he had resigned, being replaced by Agron Selimaj. The latter had also resigned two years later, in 2017.

Instead, in 2017, Driton Gashi was appointed, who was asked to release the post only a year after taking office, due to the scandal with the arrest and expulsion of six Turkish citizens.

Since then, the AKI director's position had been named Kreshnik Gashi, who was also asked to leave the post in December last year.

Security issues experts say that the leaders' frequent shifts endanger the integrity of AKI.

And this is about the fact that we have a lot of people in this facility that are changing and who for a short time stay there. So they have access to confidential documents, which may also have been shared with the other” services, says Bedri Elezi.

Meanwhile, Besa Kabashi-Ramaj stresses the need for the new AKI leader to be professionally and impartial politically prepared.

It is frightening to think that someone accepts such a position, if there is no experience because he has extraordinary responsibility over himself and if he doesn't perform well, it's not that something simple fails, but the aspect of the country's national security, and someone can even lose his life”, Ramaj-Kabashi said.

Based on the law in power, the AKI director responds directly to the prime minister.

But according to this law, the director of AKI serves as adviser to the president and prime minister on intelligence issues pertaining to Kosovo security; announces the president and prime minister of AKI activities and provides information to the president and prime minister on security.