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By:
Besnik Krasniqi
- December 25, 2020 20:01
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In Kosovo, visa liberalization has been promised for a decade. But the explosion of isolation has remained hostage to corruption. Fighting organized crime and high-level corruption identified in a Government document as unfulfilled tasks for free movement in the Schengen Area
Pristina, December 25 - Kosovars remain isolated by the high-level corruption scandal. This fact has been emphasized by the Government itself, which has admitted in a document that the state has not performed all the "homework" that are conditions for free movement in the Schengen Area.
With this, the finger has been pointed towards Kosovo as guilty for the isolation it is in, although it has been a decade since state officials have declared that they have met all the criteria.
It is the Draft of the Government's Work Plan, in which the "combat of organized crime and high-level corruption" is identified as an unfulfilled task for visa liberalization. This is listed in point "A4.2.12" of this document. And, as an indicator of the degree of fulfillment of the criterion, monthly reports on the implementation of targeted cases of organized crime and high-level corruption will be received.
In the Government, for four days they have refused to show on what basis it has concluded that this recommendation is unfulfilled. Also, it has not shown to what degree of fulfillment this condition is.
73 targeted cases, 54 with indictments
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In 2013, through a document, it was determined what the fight against organized crime and high-level corruption means. It was then defined that the subject suspected of committing this crime is the central executive and the heads of the municipalities, such as the President, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Prime Minister and the ministerial cabinet, the mayors of the municipalities and civil servants of high management, such as the Secretary General and employees in decision-making positions. In order to qualify such an act, it was decided that a monetary value of 500 euros or more should have been caused.
And, until now, it has been demonstrated clumsiness in addressing such crimes.
Judge Agim Maliqi, who is the coordinator for the targeted cases, has provided TIME with some statistics on the targeted cases.
"Currently, 73 cases are targeted in total, in the courts and the prosecutor's office. There are 54 cases with indictments (in the courts), while the others are closed-suspension of investigations and investigations (at the prosecutor's office)", said Judge Maliqi. "18 cases are unfinished and are in the stage of judicial review, while 17 cases have been completed in the court of first instance. 18 subjects have been completed with a definitive form".
"These statistical numbers clearly express the fact that our justice institutions have a significant number of cases under the LV sign. However, as can be seen from these data, the number of targeted cases during 2020 reaches 73, while high-profile cases still continue to face numerous delays, said Rreze Hoxha-Zhuja from GLPS. "It is evident that these institutions should pay more special attention to the substantial treatment of these cases, so that the legal mechanisms and infrastructure actually find practical application and not only theoretical".
Judicial processes of this category have constantly known delays.
This Wednesday, in the Department for Serious Crimes at the Basic Court in Mitrovica, it was planned to hold the trial against 18 accused of organized crime. Session failed. The chairman of the trial body, judge Beqir Halili, cited the absence of four of the accused as the reason. Also, three lawyers were missing.
According to the indictment filed on November 30, 2016, many of the accused are charged with the criminal offenses of "Participation or organization of an organized criminal group", "Smuggling of goods", "Prohibited trade" and "Evasion from the payment of fees" customs duty".
High profile punishments are missing
The Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS), within the "Justice Today" platform, monitors the work of the courts, including targeted cases.
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Rreze Hoxha-Zhuja, researcher at GLPS, has expressed criticism in relation to the addressing of cases, in which big politicians are also involved.
"Kosovo continues to face a lack of definitive punishments in the fight against high-profile corruption, even though it has constantly changed laws and created new mechanisms," said Hoxha-Zhuja. "It is worrying that the courts have scheduled a small number of court hearings for the cases targeted for visa liberalization, thus further delaying the handling of these criminal cases."
For a number of cases related to high-profile corruption, there is a significant lack of criminal prosecutions, and even in the cases under treatment, the procedures are constantly delayed.
As an example of how such cases do not get an epilogue quickly, Rreze Hoxha-Zhuja mentioned the "Stenta" case, which is being tried in the Department for Serious Crimes of the Basic Court in Pristina. For him, there are three criminal procedures that are taking place before this court, but which are still far from receiving a final decision. The case known as "Stenta 1", where one of the accused is the former Minister of Health, Ferid Agani, is continuing to stay in the drawers of this court, even though this week it has been a full year since the case was returned on retrial by the Court of Appeal. The appeal on December 23 of last year had returned the case to a retrial, but the Department of Serious Crimes of the Basic Court in Pristina has not yet scheduled any court session.
The "Stenta 2" and "Stenta 3" cases are in almost the same situation, which are in the main review phase.
Currently, the Department of Serious Crimes within the Basic Court of Pristina handles cases known as: "Damage", "Stenta", "Visa", "Post", "Veterans" and "Compulsion", while the Special Department of this court, in this period of time, there are active cases: "Acquisition", "Stone Bridge 1", "Stone Bridge 2", "Benefit", "Target", "Grants", "Llupa", "Hydropower plants" , "Deception" and "Signal".
Two cases of this nature are active in the Basic Court of Mitrovica: "Transport" and "District".
Meanwhile, the Basic Court of Prizren is dealing with the case known as "Railway".
In addition to these cases, for which official information has been provided, GLPS said that the "School" case is also active in the Basic Court in Prizren, which was returned to retrial by the Court of Appeal on September 29, and likewise the Basic Court in Gjakovë is also handling the criminal case related to the former mayor of this municipality, Pal Lekaj.
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"These statistical numbers clearly express the fact that our justice institutions have a significant number of cases under the LV sign. However, as can be seen from these data, the number of targeted cases during 2020 reaches 73, while high-profile cases still continue to face numerous delays, said Rreze Hoxha-Zhuja. "It is evident that these institutions should pay more special attention to the substantial treatment of these cases, so that the legal mechanisms and infrastructure actually find practical application and not only theoretical".
In July 2018, the European Commission approved the recommendation for the lifting of visas for Kosovo, after it was assessed that the country has implemented all the obligations issued by the roadmap for visa liberalization. However, persistent criticism has been leveled at the level of corruption in the country, and particularly at the impunity of high-level accused of corruption. The countries that are persistently looking for results in the fight against high-level corruption are France, the Netherlands and Germany.
