Pristina, April 5 2012 – Kosovo Law Institute (KLI) expresses concern over the failure of quality control mechanisms of prosecutors and prosecutions of the Republic of Kosovo. As a result of this failure, the prosecutorial system in Kosovo continues to be inefficient, where we have a lack of accountability, non-professional work, and failed results in the fight against various crimes.
The case of arrest of Special Prosecutor Nazmi Mustafi, also head of the Task Force against corruption in the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK), proves to a failure of the quality control mechanism of prosecutor’s work in Kosovo. For a year, Nazmi Mustafi had been suspected of having filed a criminal report for him. Consequently, throughout this time the mentioned prosecutor has continued to lead and involved in the most vulnerable investigations in Kosovo, compromising the prosecutorial system.
It is unacceptable that such holders of prosecutorial functions for such a long time exercise their responsibilities without continuous control and without supervision of Kosovo Prosecutorial Council. The creation of a number of mechanisms to fight corruption has served for address distribution, responsibility and accountability.
The lack of evaluation of the performance of prosecutors and prosecutions represents a failure to implement the Law on Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and accompanying regulations and it results in inadequate policies to prosecute crimes, especially those of a serious nature. KLI particularly expresses concern with the performance of SPRK prosecutors, including local and international.
The KLI considers it as unacceptable the fact that these privileged prosecutors for working conditions, with added physical security, and with higher salaries, for many years have only raised a symbolic number of indictments. Further, the situation is aggravated when we consider that SPRK cases have ended as failures as a result of unprofessional and irresponsible work of prosecutors in the preparation of cases with proves and acceptance evidence. In addition to failures in prosecuting criminal and corrupt activities, The Budget of the Republic of Kosovo has been seriously damaged in these processes.
On the other side, the KLI estimates that the performance at least in the numbers of regular prosecutions, especially those of the district, proves to be significantly better than the SPRK’s several years of work. Lack of performance evaluation, inefficiency of prosecutions, and wrong policies affect the loss of trust of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo in fighting corruptive phenomena by the judiciary authorities. Therefore, KLI suggest the Chief State Prosecutor and the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council to demand responsibility from quality control mechanism, who should evaluate the performance of each prosecutor and prosecution, especially those of the SPRK. In this context, the KPC should analyze and make public the total damages, especially the financial ones that have resulted from failed investigative processes.
EULEX should investigate the chain of collaborators of Special Prosecutor Nazmi Mustafi in order to clarify doubts about the existence of a prosecution mafia, which is suspected of acting in complete contravention with the mission defined by law and the position trusted by the institutions. The KLI considers that the anti-corruption mechanism created by different institutions should be urgently reviewed.