Chief State Prosecutor in shadow, lawyers: Waiting for decree by president crossed borders

Since accepting this proposal on April 8th, given the importance of this process and the noise created with the appointment of Isufaj by the President's Office, Vjosa Osmani was said to be reviewing and analyzing accepted documentation, as well as all the facts and circumstances related to this process.

Given the importance of this process, the President's Office has begun to examine and analyse in detail all accepted documentation, all the facts and circumstances related to this process. The president is in communication with the interest parties, and in the coming days she will meet with representatives of organisations that have monitored the chief prosecutor's selection process to hear their remarks on the prosperity of this process”.

“The president underlines that the prosecutor's selection process should be creditable and with full integrity to ensure that citizens' trust in the State Prosecutor is not harmed. The president has also stressed that the proposed candidate must meet all legal requirements, including integrity requirements. On further actions, media and public opinion will be announced in time”, Klonkosova.tv, Bekim Kupina, president Vjosa Osmani's media adviser.

From that day on, however, no one from the President's Office gave an answer to the extent of this process and when the appointment of the chief state prosecutor is expected, even though Clankosova. He sent several questions to Osman's councillors.

Lawyers say the state chief prosecutor's non-rejection has greater impact on the fight against crime, while adding that the President's time to make the decision has gone beyond the borders.

The lawyer, Arlind Fetah, says any delays on the president's part are at the expense of this institution, and that this position should not remain with a task officer.

Taking into consideration the key role of the chief state prosecutor, who heads one of the independent institutions with authority and responsibility for prosecution, there is no doubt that any delay in his appointment on the President's part is at the expense of this institution, because this position is already held by a task leader. So by now we should have a decision, when his powers are known, conform Article 11 of Law No. 03L-225 for State Prosecutor”.

“Conform Article 109 of the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, which envisions that “the State Prosecutor is appointed and dismissed by the president of the Republic of Kosovo on the basis of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council proposal. The mandate of the chief state prosecutor is seven years old, without a reappointed possibility,” does not exist any constitutional or legal deadline within which, from the moment of admission of the proposal by the KKP by the name of the new chief prosecutor, the president of Kosovo must appoint it”.

However, since we are already in this position, it is necessary to act quickly regarding the completion of procedures for the mandate of the new chief prosecutor, since the country cannot be placed in such a position, where a institution with key competencies in the justice system, remains with a task officer” said Fetah.

Although there is no legal deadline, lawyer Arber Jashar estimates that the president must avoid unwarranted procrastination for appointment.

“The constitution, nor the law, has preceded any deadline that would impose the president of the Republic of Kosovo to decree the chief state prosecutor. However, the president, as a guarantor of the constitutional functioning of institutions, is tasked that any requirement of this nature, handle it with high responsibility, within a short term, avoiding unwarranted procrastination”.

<x0) The KKP has appointed a task leader to the chief state prosecutor's position, the non-recognition will evidently affect the prosecution's performance, and if it continues long and there may be consequences in fighting crime” Jashari told Klaankosova.tv.

The lawyer, Besnik Berisha, for Clankosova.tv, says that although the maximum legal or constitutional deadline for decree is not inexplicably envisioned, the president must act in a special hurry to open the way for independent organisation and functioning of the Prosecutorial System.

The exhumation of the state chief prosecutor's decree unless it contributes to the fight against crime, which should be the priority of all priorities for each institution, does not even contribute to the actual functioning of the prosecutorial system in Kosovo. The period spent on the day of the surrender to decree the candidate name for the chief prosecutor, Blerim Isufaj, has already exceeded the limits of a reasonable deadline and so far should have a decision by Kosovo President”.

However, Berisha says the frustrations of candidates or persons who have observed the process of choosing that the chief state prosecutor cannot and should not be addressed by the president, but by the Constitutional Court.

The Prosecutorial System has the legal and constitutional right to select the governing organs, including the chief state prosecutor and this independence cannot be violated or dictated by anyone. The frustrations of candidates or persons who have observed the process of choosing that the chief state prosecutor could not and should not be addressed by the president, but by the Constitutional Court if they just set up and for that the legal conditions” are met.

On the other hand, lawyer Berisha estimates that all this delay in decree could even be interpreted as favouring someone.

The “Vonence in the decree could be interpreted as favouring someone who has managed to qualify successfully and discrimination of the candidate voted with full consensus by the Prosecutorial Council” Berisha said.

We remember that on April 6th, the Prosecutorial Council by 11 votes had nominated Blerim Isufaj for the new head of state, as the selection process has been conveyed with harsh reactions from organisations that have monitored the process, as well as by ambassadors of the Quint countries and the chief of the EU Office in Kosovo.

The chief of the European Union Office in Kosovo, Thomas Szunyog, was disappointed by the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council for the process of electing the chief state prosecutor, while saying the EU has consistently called for a fair and merit process.

“against the European Union's continued calls to ensure a fair and transparent choice and based on credit for the chief State Prosecutor, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council concluded the selection process by ignoring those principles. We are surprised and disappointed with these KPK actions”, Szunyog wrote in comwitter.

US Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier has said their expectations in this process have been for him to be” straight, objective, transparent, and based on the merit of”.

The fact that KKP members have failed to take into account legitimate complaints and consideration panel recommendations do not meet this standard. The US has not had a preferred candidate, nor have we prejudged the individual qualifications of candidates”.

“” We are concerned with the KKP way it has carried out these procedures and damaged the trust of the Kosovo public and our trust in the KPK as the public institution”, Houvenier wrote on Twitter.

But, even Germany's ambassador to Kosovo, Jorn Rohde, had expressed disappointment at the KPK's decision, saying this is not the mode of “dur to move forward”.

However, objections continued as three Kosovo non-governmental organisations also emerged. The Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), the Group for Jury and Political Studies (GLPS) and the FOL Movement, had asked the country's president, Vjosa Osmanaj, not to decree Isufaj.

“This proposal for naming Blerim Isufaj as chief state prosecutor is made by the Prosecutorial Council, although the country's key organisations dealing with monitoring the justice system had warned that the process of selecting the new head of state had a string of shortcomings that violated the integrity of the” process, the communiqué of these organisations said.