In a new propaganda video, the US Embassy has claimed that the establishment of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SPAK) and the National Investigation Bureau (BKH), which is modeled on the American FBI, “corrupt officials and organized crime bosses will […] be faced with justice.”
This claim resonates with earlier statements of US officials that the justice reform will bring in the “big fish.” In 2017, then US ambassador Donald Lu had claimed that the “Force of Law” operation of the State Police would be “the moment of truth, the moment of truth for the connections of crime with politics.” But the actual truth was that the Socialist Party nominated criminals to high offices without a single response from the US Embassy. Lu also promised that 2018 would see the arrest of high-level corrupt politicians, none of which materialized.
The new video, released on Facebook, promises that the SPAK and BKH will be “independent and depoliticized,” while ignoring the fact that through a loophole in the law many organized crime cases may never even arrive on the desk of SPAK.
The High Prosecutorial Council (KLP) is currently awaiting the vetting of the remaining candidates for SPAK. KLP chair Gent Ibrahimi has claimed that SPAK will become operational with 7–8 candidates, which is below the Constitutionally mandated number of 10. Only once SPAK is established, the BKH can be created, and by then we are already deep into 2020.
