Prishtina, 9 August 2023
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers,
Dear Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Initially, let us welcome together our newest member of the cabinet, our new colleague, the Minister of Defense, Ejup Maqedonci. Good work. Once again, I sincerely thank former minister Armend Mehaj for his unparalleled contribution, commitment and dedication, while I wish his wife a full and speedy recovery.
There are many cases when, as a result of the inaction of the justice system, various persons with numerous criminal precedents, move freely, either released by the authorities or even not prosecuted at all, and who endanger and take the lives of our citizens.
Even various credible local and international reports state that our justice system continues to be inefficient and slow and is characterized by the phenomenon of numerous cases in retrial and inappropriate punitive decisions.
There are also the most extreme cases, even already known to the public, when the last instance, the Supreme Court, completely acquitted the defendant of the sentence of life imprisonment imposed in the first instance, in a marathon judicial process, tried and tried again.
In many cases, when a crime occurs, society must be raised in order to have a meritorious decision from the Court. An example is the last case with the sentence of life imprisonment of the murderer of the late Marigona Osmani, i.e. Dardan Krivaqa. It took a society and an entire people to publicly condemn the crime, so that the Court could issue a meritorious verdict.
The meritorious decisions of the justice system have a double impact on the society of any country. In addition to bringing justice to the victims and the injured, they also dictate the predictability of the consequences of any illegal and criminal action, thus influencing the prevention of crimes.
The level of trust of citizens in the justice bodies continues to be among the lowest compared to other institutions.
According to the Report of UNDP and USAID – Public Pulse, published this year, while the level of satisfaction for the Government has increased to over 50%, for judicial and prosecutorial bodies such a trend continues to be low. According to the same report, citizens’ satisfaction with the performance of the justice system – the courts and the prosecutor’s office is only 29%.
According to judicial statistics, during the year 2022 the Court of Appeal had returned 1,754 cases to full retrial. This report burdens the justice system, overwhelms it, delays justice, loses the trust of citizens, and as a final effect, in the absence of efficient punishment, risks encouraging crime and criminality.
Therefore, reform is necessary and vetting is the solution. For 5 months now, we have been waiting for the Constitutional Court to pave the way for the implementation of this reform as soon as possible. Time is passing. Time that passes is time wasted.
This week, dear colleagues of the government cabinet and dear citizens, there was also a positive development for the Republic of Kosovo, on the international level. Through a letter addressed to the Secretary of the United States of America, Antony Blinken, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrel, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, James Cleverly, over 50 MPs, among them also American senators and congressmen, 10 chairmen of the parliamentary committees of foreign policies of 16 countries, including Ukraine, have expressed their support for Kosovo and called for a tougher approach towards Serbia and the risk that the actions of Serbia represents to the security of our region.
We are grateful to all political representatives who have joined this joint call and we welcome each signature and further support. This type of support strengthens our commitment to complete de-escalation of the situation in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo, the commitment to democracy, and the belief in legality and constitutionality.
Thank you.
Last modified: August 9, 2023