• Five police officers injured during an anti-smuggling operation in the North (media)
• Kurti: Kosovo unable to pay for electricity in the north (media)
• Krasniqi: Kurti should deal with solution to crisis, not with party elections (RTK)
• Haradinaj: Government caused millions of euros damage to civil servants (media)
• Ceku: Europa Nostra has lost credibility, is politically influenced by Serbia (media)
• Serbia bans Kosovo’s participation in table tennis championship (media)
• Government of Kosovo prepares new employment scheme for families (media)
• EULEX chief meets with Kurti: As always, an inspiring discussion (media)
• The former EULEX prosecutor comes as a winner, gets invited as a suspect (Koha/media)
• EULEX reacts to allegations raised by Bamieh in Pristina (media)
• Jashari family reacts to a bus with foreign students not allowed to visit memorial site (media)
• Two more Ukrainian journalists arrive in Kosovo (media)

Five police officers injured during an anti-smuggling operation in the North (media)

Five Kosovo Police officers in remained injured in the North of Kosovo after a border police vehicle was damaged during an anti-smuggling operation in a village near Leposavic.

The driver of the truck transporting the smuggled goods didn’t obey police orders for a check-up and ended up crashing with the police car. This forced the officers to use their weapons, as the truck driver hit the police car for the second time during another attempt to get him to stop. In the end, they were able to stop the truck in the village of Llazhine after which its driver was arrested. During the attempt to stop the truck, the police officers were obstructed by two other vehicles. Police were able to stop one of these vehicles, whose driver is suspected of having communicated with the truck driver during the entire operation.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti received the policemen who participated in the action in Leposavic. He said that the fight against organized crime and the establishment of order and legality remain among the main priorities of the government and that the Kosovo Police will always have full support for this.

Minister of Interior Xhelal Svcla reacted to the attack saying among other things that “the bodies of the state, order and justice have only one goal: to return order and security to normality, but not to attack our police nor to break the rules and laws.” He added: “Police officials have asked the Special Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the incident. Even after their insistence, the Prosecution did not respond positively. Meanwhile, the prosecutor of the basic prosecution immediately released one of the smugglers who attacked the police.”

Police Trade Union also condemned the attack.

Kurti: Kosovo unable to pay for electricity in the north (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said that Kosovo is unable to pay for the electricity in the north.

“Our main focus is the implementation of the roadmap which will enable the payment of electricity in the north of Kosovo to begin as soon as possible because our country, our government, cannot financially or materially cope with a repeat of the previous years,” Kurti said at a press conference following the meeting of the Vetevendosje Movement to discuss elections for party leader.

Kurti said the candidacies will be able to be submitted as of 15 August but did not say whether he plans to run. He said he would present his position in four weeks’ time. The party leader will be elected on 25 September.

Krasniqi: Kurti should deal with solution to crisis, not with party elections (RTK)

The chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Memli Krasniqi has criticized Prime Minister Albin Kurti for ‘running away’ from governing responsibility during what he said was Kosovo’s biggest economic crisis ever.

The head of the PDK has said that for a responsible prime minister, especially in these crisis circumstances, there should not be much room for press conferences from the party’s headquarters, because his first task is the mandate in front of the citizens and not the parade in front of the militants.

“But the one who refuses to answer and take responsibility for the failures in front of the citizens, will always seek salvation elsewhere,” Krasniqi said.

Haradinaj: Government caused millions of euros damage to civil servants (media)

Leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) Ramush Haradinaj published a list which he said shows the financial damages caused to the civil servants in Kosovo because of the failure of the Government to adopt the law on salaries.

Haradinaj said the damages reach 16.6 million euros in terms on money not allocated to the civil servants in the last twelve months due to the absence of the law. “The government of deceit, except for not delivering on its promises, it did not even take care of those that keep the country’s administration running,” Haradinaj wrote on Facebook.

Ceku: Europa Nostra has lost credibility, is politically influenced by Serbia (media)

Kosovo’s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Hajrulla Ceku said the heritage organisation Europa Nostra has lost credibility due to what he said was it being politically influenced by Serbia.

Speaking at a press conference, Ceku said the visit of the organisation’s representatives to Kosovo is ‘meaningless’ and has no effects. Ceku accused the organisation of “hypocrisy” since he said last year a cultural heritage organisation had send a nomination to Europa Nostra to include the Novoberdo fortress to the list of endangered sites but it instead chose to include the Decan Monastery “without justification and with political influence from Serbia”.

He also commented on a Twitter post of the European Parliament rapporteur Viola von Cramon after meeting Europa Nostra officials. Von Cramon had said that she discussed the need for protection of endangered cultural heritage across Europe “with the particular focus on Decani Monastery and destroyed cultural heritage in Ukraine.” The Kosovo minister said he hoped Von Cramon made a mistake when she put the the Decan Monastery and the monuments destroyed in Ukraine by Russian aggression in one sentence. “We want to believe that she made this mistake unintentionally, that she did not have the correct information and made it hastily, but she must provide us with an explanation for this mistake.”

Serbia bans Kosovo’s participation in table tennis championship (media)

The Kosovo Olympic Committee said on Saturday that the representative table tennis team was not allowed to participate with equal rights in the European U-21 Table Tennis Championship held in Belgrade, Serbia.

In an announcement by the Kosovo Olympic Committee, it is stated that Serbian politics continues to interfere in sports, discriminating against Kosovo athletes. “We have been in constant contact with the Kosovo Table Tennis Federation during the European participation process, for which we condemn the next action of mixing Serbian politics in sports, which is not the first case, when it comes to our athletes,” noted the Committee expressing hope that the European Table Tennis Federation will take necessary measures against the organizer, Serbia.

Government of Kosovo prepares new employment scheme for families (media)

Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti presented via a video message measures that he said the government will take to make sure that every family in Kosovo has at least one member employed, noting that the priorities of his government include employment and justice.

He said the government would be subsidising up to 70 percent of the gross salary of the employees of the scheme for six months. “The main criteria for benefitting from this scheme is for the job seeker not to have any family member employed,” he explained. He added that the Ministry of Finance would be coming up with detailed information this week.

EULEX chief meets with Kurti: As always, an inspiring discussion (media)

The head of the EULEX mission in Kosovo Lars-Gunnar Wigemark met on Sunday with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, at the “Para Sports Games 2022”, which are taking place in Pristina.

“As always, an inspiring discussion with the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti. This time on the margins of the 2022 Para Sport Games Kosova,” Wigenmark tweeted.

On Saturday, EULEX, OSCE, KFOR and the representatives of Kosovo’s institutions opened the Para Sport Games. This event aims to empower people with disabilities and make their inclusion in society.

The former EULEX prosecutor comes as a winner, gets invited as a suspect (Koha/media)

A few weeks after winning the case with the British Government, the former EULEX prosecutor, Maria Bamieh, who over the years signaled the suspicions of corruption in this mission, has shared details from her ten-year journey in justice. In a media conference in Pristina, she disclosed some of the cases for which she had raised suspicions and for reporting of which she was criticized and did not get contract renewed, Koha reports.

Bamieh alleged that through intercepting telephones she had uncovered that an EULEX judge was meeting with people of one of the Ministry of Health officials who was in prison for abuse of power in order to ensure his release in exchange of payment. “They had a strong political alliance in the Government,” she said.

But, after finishing the conference, the former EULEX prosecutor received an invitation for an interview from the Basic Prosecutor’s Office. She is suspected of committing two criminal offences: “abuse of official position or authority” and “disclosure of official secrecy”.

EULEX reacts to allegations raised by Bamieh in Pristina (media)

The EU rule of law mission, EULEX, has issued a statement concerning allegations that its former prosecutor Maria Bamieh raised at a press conference in Pristina on Saturday.

The mission said there was no truth in any of Bamieh’s allegations and that the Kosovo Chief Prosecution office in investigations it conducted in 2016 concluded that the former EULEX judge Francesco Florit has not committed any offences in discharging his duties. “We have heard Maria Bamieh repeating unsubstantiated allegations, rumors and hearsays.  Bamieh has not presented any new evidence whatsoever.”

EULEX also said that Bamieh’s case against EULEX was dismissed by the UK in 2018 and that she had brought civil proceedings in the UK relating to employment issues against her employer (the FCDO), the Mission, and fellow employees, some of whom she mentioned in her remarks at the news conference. “As a rule of law Mission, we believe in justice as delivered by justice institutions.”

Jashari family reacts to a bus with foreign students not allowed to visit memorial site (media)

The family of the late KLA commander, Adem Jashari, reacted to reports that a bus with foreign students was not allowed to visit the family’s memorial site in the village of Prekaz, Skenderaj municipality, after suspecting that the passengers were from Serbia.

Media reported that a group of Skenderaj sports fans prevented the bus with students from the Open University in Pristina to enter the memorial site claiming there were students from Serbia among the passengers.

Bekim Jashari, family’s representative, said such a move goes against the values of Albanian traditions and against those of the family. He said none of the students in the bus was from Serbia. “The memorial belongs to the sacrifice and resistance for freedom and as such is the right place for all who wish to learn about the value of freedom,” said Jashari, adding that he hoped such cases will not be repeated in the future.

Two more Ukrainian journalists arrive in Kosovo (media)

Ukrainian journalists Iryna Synelnyk and Oksana Chykanch arrived in Kosovo over the weekend as part of the “Journalists in Kosovo Residence” programme.

According to a statement from the Association of Kosovo Journalists (AGK), the reporters were welcomed by their fellow Ukrainian colleague Lyudmila Makey, head of the AGK Xhemajl Rexha, Flutura Kusari from the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and representatives of the Kosovo’s Ministry of Interior and the Police.