Will Kurt respect the prosecution's invitation to the interview?

At least this is how the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation has warned.

Free Europe Radio has asked the Government of Kosovo if Kurti will respond to the order, but has not received any answers.

How did it get here?

The Constitutional Court in Pristina has confirmed days earlier that it issued a warrant imposing Kurti to give his testimony in the quality of the witness in a case involving allegations of abuses with state reserves, as the prime minister has not submitted to two invitations the prosecution has made in recent months, writes Radio Free Europe.

The prime minister himself has said several times that he has not refused the invitations, but insists that he give the testimony in his office in the prime minister. His office has submitted requests to the Constitutional Court, asking this institution to order the Prosecution to obtain testimony in the prime minister.

Kurti claims the prosecution has received testimony in the prime minister's office even in the past, without mentioning any names, while his refusal to go to the Prosecutor argues with the statement that he does not want to become the global “news worldwide that the prime minister is allegedly suspected of a corruption case.

Kosovo Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu is on the same line.

For him, the prosecution's request to Kurti is political.

The “Justice System in the Republic of Kosovo, never cheaper, has been due to political influence. But I have to say, never more political. Since we have not been able to be stopped by action in the Assembly, the opposition, or one of the analysts in the television studios, have chosen with the Special Prosecutor, but cannot stop us from being”, has declared Haxhiu on February 26th, without mentioning someone by name, and without offering any evidence of the claims made.

What does the law foresee?

Volnet Bugakku, senior researcher at the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), has told Radio Free Europe that procedures for such a situation are regulated with the Criminal Procedure Code.

“Sella whenever there is an invitation, whether at the Court, whether at the Prosecutor's Office, must all persons, regardless of what positions they hold, respond positively to the invitation of the police, the prosecution, or the courts, to give testimony to those institutions”, he has said.

According to Bugakk, the refusal to testify, for no reason that it would be valid for the prosecution of the case, or for the judge, forces institutions to try to convince the person to testify, whether through the pronunciation of the preliminary fine, in this case of 250 euros, or later by sending him into custody for 30 days.

Asked whether the fine could be pronounced Kurt immediately, in case of failure to appear in the prosecutor on March 4th, Bugakku has said everything depends on the judge of the preliminary procedure.

Perhaps you will give one more case, another invitation is sent before a fine is pronounced, not responding to the organs of justice and failing to cooperate with justice organs in giving his testimony”.

According to him, such an approach of the prime minister can be seen by law bodies as obstructing investigations towards uncovering the truth in the case with state reserves.

Has something like this ever happened in Kosovo?

Yeah. In 2011, Blerim Kuci, then mayor of the Suhareka municipality, had remained in custody for 30 days after refusing to testify to allegations concerning the crimes of former Kosovo Liberation Army members.

Prior to the ban, he was fined 250 euros.

Kurti's conduct challenges principle of equality before law

Volnet Bugakk, but many other law connoisseurs, believe that Kurt's behavior gives the wrong impression that the law's principle of equality is not valid for high officials.

This creates a bad spot in the division and balance of powers, and should be known that the equality of the law applies to all, as to those who hold high positions, as to any other citizen of the Republic of Kosovo”.

State Stocks Case

In 2023, three people were arrested in case of state reserves. Among them were employees of the Ministry of Industry, Intervention and Trade (MINT), led by Rosetta Hajdari, who, while presenting evidence to the Special Prosecution, has chosen to be quietly protected.

In this ministry, in 2023, raids were conducted after publishing audio-incisions from the National Portal, where it claimed that a quantity of oil, purchased in Poland, and a quantity of wheat, purchased in Turkey, had never arrived.

Hajdari has said purchases for state reserves are in accordance with the law, but has not provided more details, since information about them is state secret.

She has accused the police of taking classified documents as state secrets to quality during the raids.

Kurt had come to the defense of Hajdari, saying that “has no corruption and misuse”.