Three years without the chief prosecutor, does the new KKP law bring hope?

The new law, which is expected to take effect by 2026, envisions a restructuring of the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, reducing the number of members from thirteen to seven, as part of efforts to increase efficiency and professional representation.

Volnet Bugakku from the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) has estimated that not setting a clear deadline for the chief prosecutor's decree on the President's part is a serious failure under this legal reform.

Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani had not decreed the name Blerim Isufaj for chief state prosecutor for more than a year, as the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council proposal had gone to her office.

But Bugakku hopes the new composition of the Prosecutorial Council from 2026 will pave the way for the state chief prosecutor's case.

I think this has been a disaster of this law, the fact that our request has not been approved to set a strict deadline for the president, and when it decides on the issue of decreeing a chief state prosecutor's candidate. The deadline is in terms of decreeing judges and prosecutors, and that deadline is sixty days from the moment when councils propose them as judges and prosecutors, and the president decides within these sixty days to decree these candidates. And we've asked for a deadline of ninety days... But, however, this proposal has not passed and there is no change in the procedure of appointing the chief state prosecutor; it remains as it is in the old law. It is still unclear how this performance will continue further or the range of exercising the position of chief state prosecutor”, he stressed for Kosovo Press, broadcast Periscope.

Even Kosovo's Institute for Justice (IKD) researcher Flamur Kabashi says the completion of the KPK Law has not clarified how to act for a faster solution to the position of chief state prosecutor.

“We're still in a process which we have a task officer... From now on, with this fulfillment and change and these innovations that are in this law, it's not that it's defined and clearly clarified how it will be done. However, the KKP is aware that Blerim Isufaj's name is referred to by the president and the KKP must conduct the competition procedure and develop a procedure that is based on meritocracy and on legal provisions at the power of”, Kabashi says.

Despite this frustration, IKD's Kabashi believes the new changes will fight corruption at the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council.

The best possible choice within this law and innovations that this law has brought... This form of regulation in this law will probably take away the corruption that has existed in the KKP... and this very law will probably be the best possible response that will take away this corporate thinker, the thought of what a certain group leads, functions and appoints in the name of its own” interests, he said.

The amendments envisioned in the Law for the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council were rejected by members of this institution. This law for the first time did not pass the Constitutional Court's test, but with the inclusion of changes demanded by the Constitutional Constitution later passed the court's filter for the second time.

We recall that Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, in October 2023, did not decree Blerim Isufajn for the post of chief state prosecutor because, as he said, certain legal violations, while the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council had declared that the president's reasonings were unfounded and biased.

Blerim Isufaj was shortlisted candidate to lead the chief state prosecutor from the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and was awaiting approval since April 2022. /Periscope/