GLPS: Over 60 percent of citizens believe that politics makes politics immune to justice

At today's Conference on Juridical and Political Studies Group (GLPS) on subject “Challenges to rule the law in Kosovo: The justice and prosecutorial system's performance and citizens' assessment of these” institutions were said that over 50 percent of citizens did not notice the improvement of the judiciary during 2022.

Renata Bajrami from the Group for Jury and Political Studies unveiled the data concerning citizens' perception of political influence on the institutions of justice.

For 2022, 62.5 percent of citizens believe politicians are less likely to be punished by law. Yet, only 22.7 percent feel that citizens are equal to justice. Compared to last year, trend is negative because we have a 2.5 percent rise that they think politicians are impunity. Viewed as a whole, this indicator shows that over 60 percent of the population believe politics will make them vulnerable to justice. Moreover, according to reports, 70 percent of citizens believe in courts and prosecutors at least. Because they think they have the biggest influence on politics”, she said.

The report says citizens consider less politically influenced bodies to be police and EULEX. Similarly, 46 percent of respondents believe that institutions of justice continue to be affected by bribery.

The most affected subx0 institutions, according to 70 percent of citizens, are courts as well as prosecutors. We have a 5.4 percent train growth since last year. In terms of efficiency and the fight against corruption, Kosovo Police surveyed by 53.2 percent is the most effective institution in fighting this phenomenon. While 4.7 percent of citizens think that courts are effective in fighting corruption and prosecution by only 6.3 percent. Regarding the effectiveness in fighting corruption compared with last year's report data, we have a negative signal regarding the citizens' confidence in the prosecutor and court”, Bajrami added.

More than half of respondents have denied that the justice system has improved in recent years, Liridon Salihi of the Group for Jury and Political Studies said.

“Mbi 50 percent of citizens have stressed that they have not noticed the improvement of the judiciary during 2022. As a result, this year it turns out we have negative trends compared to last year on the opinions of citizens in the report whether the justice system has improved in our country or not. On either the list or the percentage of those who have seen the improvement of the judiciary during 2022, from 31.5 percent of respondents, most of them, 34.1 percent of those who have claimed to have improved in the justice system, this improvement has been linked to the index, the indicator of accountability and transparency” respectively, he said.

On the other hand, Salih said respondents estimate with a score of 3.6, the government's initiative to reform the justice system and civil seizure of unwarranted property.

We've asked respondents how they value the security level in the country. From the 1-as-safe value, to the 5-to-fully safe, average respondents' response has been 3.42. It means that these events have also affected the perception of how they view the level of security in the country, citizens of the Republic of Kosovo. On the other hand, since during 2022 they were also marked by cases of domestic violence and gender - based cases, we have asked respondents how much they see preemptive sentences pronounced against perpetrators of such acts. From answer 1 to 5, their average answer in this case was 2,97”, Salihi added.

Part of this report is the efficiency shown by the State Attorney and the Courts, where only about 32 percent of the materials at work have been solved.

The first part of the report includes citizens' perceptions of justice institutions, political influence, and bribery in the judiciary. From the survey realised, the report also provides data on citizens' assessment of self-defence in justice and civil seizures of unwarrantable property.