Kurti's criticism of the Special Prosecutor: Interventions in Justice and Invention to Turn Attention From Failures

According to IKD's Shala, there are two problematic issues in the writing of Prime Minister Kurti.

The first irresistibly irresistibly, the right of prime minister and political actors to influence and interfere with the work of independent constitutional institutions, such as the State Prosecutor. In the concrete case, under no circumstances in a rule-of-law country can be thought to be given this right to specific political actors to issue statements that promote distrust of institutions, such as the state prosecutor, and this is defined under the Constitution”, Shala has said.

He stresses that this is direct intervention in the justice system.

Such statements are clearly interventions in the justice system, and this is determined according to the Constitution and is further relaxed on the part of the Venice Commission's opinions. What happens to the prime minister, in the concrete case, is to propose the necessary legislative changes that have been made, and the second eventually to try to support it through the Law on the Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo and here complete its mandate. Any statement he made outside these stands for intervention in the independent constitutional institution, in the concrete case of State Prosecutor”.

On the other hand, Shala has rejected the prime minister's statement that five years have come to pass that justice institutions have been enabled to prosecute and judge Serbian criminals.

“E bear in mind that there have been several provisions that have addressed the issue of judgment in absentia, but it is considered that the same are unapprehensible because of the problems they have, and this has also been the reason that new provisions for the lack of judgment were introduced in the new Code of Criminal Procedure that entered into force in February 2023. So it turns out that the adequate provisions in this area in terms of lack of judgment have not been five years, but it's since February 1923 that it's been dropping about 15 or 16 months”, Shala told EO.

But part of the blame falls on the prosecution, Shala says, because he has not told the matter any priority.

According to him, there are currently only three separate prosecutors in the Department of War Crimes, which “handle other cases that it does not have an adequate focus on handling these cases”.

According to Shala, Kosovo lacks a national strategy for handling these cases, taking even examples from other countries that have faced this situation as is the case with Croatia.

And Democratic Party of Kosovo deputy Ardian Kastrati has declared that Serbian Prime Minister Albin Kurti's “dedication” in handling this subject is to draw attention from the chaotic situation in which the country is located.

“Kurti doesn't do or punish criminals, potentially who committed crimes during the 98-99 war in Kosovo. It is the same Kurt who praised that war criminal Oliver Ivanovic, who is known what he did in northern Mitrovica before and after the war. But my impression is that all of this is being done by Kurti, in terms of not doing justice organs, is that it's about shifting attention from the chaotic situation that has introduced Kosovo, starting with the big economic crisis, mass migration, massive corruption at the levels of mafia, international isolation, sanctions, interAlbanian relations to the lowest point due to Kurti, as with Albania, as with the Macedonian Albanians, as well as with Albanians in Presevo, and with the lowest point of U.S.R., and we discussed the historic rejection of the Council of Europe, Kastra> said.

Spas MP Kastrati, this is electoral calculations to avoid topics after bringing the country to the brink of a cliff, the “where every second wants to leave this country”.

Unlike civil society the opposition judicial system is thinking in the party that leads Albin Kurti Movement Vetevendosje.

This party's MP, Mefail Bajqinovci, has said Kurti has not intervened in the judiciary.

“Prime Minister Kurti has made no interference in the judiciary, but Prime Minister Kurti has appealed that as soon as measures are taken to prosecute criminals who have committed massacres in Kosovo. Intervention in the judiciary is something else, intervention in the judiciary is called when you prevent the judiciary from working, and they are not happening in the Kurti government. The statement by Prime Minister Kurti is that as soon as the people are followed and punished, Serbian criminals who committed massacres in the Albanian population in 98-99”, Bajqinovci said.

Speaking of the prosecutor's absence, Bajcinovci said the Special Prosecutorship should open a “competition to justify”.

They're likely to open the competition. I agree that a prosecutor has retired, but it is possible that the prosecution as soon as it opens the competition and gets other prosecutors and that the more it works, so I think it's not an excuse”, Bajqinovci said.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, through a writing on the social network Facebook, accused the Kosovo Special Prosecutor of having been five years since receiving the competencies for prosecuting war criminals, but having spent five years without results.

To Kurti's statements, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor has responded Friday, saying the prime minister's continuing comments about P's work. The SRK is in stark opposition to the constitutional principles of power sharing and international standards for judicial independence.

“As such undermines public confidence in the work of the State Prosecutor in general and the Special Prosecutor in particular. The Special Prosecutor of the Republic of Kosovo announces the public opinion that in the past five years, since this prosecutor has received competencies for investigating war crimes, he has done extremely great work in full co-operation with implementing law institutions. Moreover, this has been done with insufficient framework, professional and financial capacities as a result of insufficient budgets. Even with these insufficient resources, both legal and financial, we announce public opinion that the Special Prosecutor, currently, has a total of 60 counts of war crimes for 56 cases, against 165 persons”, the SPRK's response is said.