The US Embassy in Kosovo has withdrawn from monitoring the process of appointments of new prosecutors, citing the “fundamentally broken” process and political interference.
In a press statement on Friday, the Embassy announced that the process of electing new Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPC) members and selecting Chief Prosecutors lack transparency and are subject to conflicts of interest.
“Since further Embassy involvement could be misinterpreted as an endorsement of this broken system, we will no longer participate [in monitoring the process],” it stated.
The Embassy called for an immediate change of the KFC legal framework.
Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Minister of Justice Selim Selimi expressed their concerns about the withdrawal and called for transparency through messages on their social media.
Hoti pointed at his government’s efforts to start a justice reform in the country based on the vetting of judges and prosecutors. “This process will ensure a transparent justice system, with internal accountability and mutual checks,” Hoti said.
Selimi called for politics to keep “hands away from justice!” He thanked the U.S. Embassy for their support to make changes to the KPC laws.
Speaker of Parliament Vjosa Osmani, on the other hand, slammed the ruling majority who, according to her, now want to fix the “fundamentally broken system” they have created.
Those who have created, supported, aided and abetted the ‘fundamentally broken system’, can’t fix it. They use it to protect themselves. Period. pic.twitter.com/l5rQ4lL6df
— Vjosa Osmani (@VjosaOsmaniMP) October 9, 2020
The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council is an independent institution that proposes, promotes, transfers, disciplines prosecutors. It has nine members.
Article 110 of the Constitution stipulates that: Proposals for appointments of prosecutors must be made on the basis of an open appointment process, on the basis of the merit of the candidates, and the proposals shall reflect principles of gender equality and the ethnic composition of the relevant territorial jurisdiction.”
Kosovo’s Chief State Prosecutor is appointed by the President upon the proposal of the KPC, with a single mandate of seven years.
