• Justice minister slams media and civil society's response to leaked wiretaps (media)
• Prosecutorial Council launches disciplinary actions against prosecutor (media)
• Judicial Council says it will act in line with disciplinary procedure regulation (media)
• Financial Intelligence Unit chief sacked over leaked wiretaps (Prishtina Insight)
• Assembly committee approves list of PAK board nominees (media)
• Slovenia supports Kosovo’s efforts to join NATO, EU (Express)
• Another former EULEX prosecutor wants to report to Kosovo legislators (Lajmi/Zeri)
• Over 38,000 vaccines arrive in Kosovo, half a million more expected from next week (media)
• WHO calls for moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots (media)
• COVID-19: 221 new cases, one death (media)

 

Justice minister slams media and civil society's response to leaked wiretaps (media)

Kosovo's Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu called a press conference yesterday to speak about the recent leaked wiretaps where several officials of the justice system are implicated. She said it is shocking how little outcry there was in the wake of the recordings on the part of the media, the civil society as well as justice institutions that ought to be looking into allegations raised from the files.

Haxhiu, who cut short her maternity leave to speak to reporters, said that the recordings prove how important the judicial vetting process is and that it is unacceptable for only the Government of Kosovo to be reacting to this affair. "I call on the Judicial Council and the Prosecutorial Council to urgently take steps in this direction and investigate all those persons that undermine the integrity of judicial institutions," she said.

Prosecutorial Council launches disciplinary actions against prosecutor (media)

Prosecutorial Council of Kosovo announced that the chief prosecutor of the Basic Prosecution in Pristina has submitted a request for initiating disciplinary procedures against a prosecutor in connection to the leaked audio recordings implicating a number of senior justice officials.

In a statement to the press, the Council said that in response to the request it will set up a hearing panel which is responsible for addressing alleged violations.

Judicial Council says it will act in line with disciplinary procedure regulation (media)

Kosovo Judicial Council has reacted to the leaked audio recordings published in the media in recent days saying that it was closely following the developments.

The Judicial Council said it would act in line with procedures and timelines set out in the disciplinary procedure regulation for its members, one of whom is implicated in the wiretaps.

Financial Intelligence Unit chief sacked over leaked wiretaps (Prishtina Insight)

Financial Intelligence Chief Dardan Nuhiu is shown the door after alleged recordings of him are published in which he boasts of plans to 'capture' the main media in the country and deploy them for his own benefit.

Finance Minister Hekuran Murati has announced the dismissal of the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit after he discussed plans to control the media for his own personal interests in leaked audio recordings.

Dardan Nuhiu was sacked on Tuesday after the recordings of him talking about abusing his position were published early this week.

“After reviewing the audio recordings published in the media yesterday and today, which implicate the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Supervisory Board … has decided to dismiss him with immediate effect,” Murati said on Tuesday.

Kosovo online news portal Shqip.com published the recordings on Monday and Tuesday. In the recordings, Nuhiu could be heard saying he planned to take control of important media outlets in order to apply pressure on various public figures for his own benefit.

“In a couple of years, I will have captured all the strongest [media],” Nuhiu is heard saying in the recordings. He adds that after being “in charge” of the media, he will be the one deciding matters.

Nuhiu tells an unknown person over the phone that if someone harasses someone, he will be able to use the media against the harasser. He also claims that he will use the media against state prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi, by warning him not to go after particular individuals.

Nuhiu is also heard claiming that he was already in talks to get 50 per cent of “two strong portals”. He mentions the Kosovo media outlet Indeksonline as one of them and Insajderi as the second.

Indeksonline director Faton Shoshi, claiming Nuhiu is his “best friend”, told BIRN that he “could not believe Dardan [Nuhiu] is the one speaking … I have never had an offer from him to buy Indeksonline”.

Vehbi Kajtazi, co-director of Insajderi, told BIRN he has doubts about the authenticity of the audio recording. “I do not have an official confirmation that the person speaking is Dardan Nuhiu,” Kajtazi told BIRN, explaining he has known Nuhiu for a long time.

“Many ‘political regimes’ … have tried to hit me and Insajder, but have not succeeded even when I was physically beaten, threatened or lynched,” Kajtazi added.

BIRN contacted Nuhiu, the Ministry of Finance, and the Financial Intelligence Agency on the authenticity of the recordings, but did not receive an answer by the time of publication.

The same portal Shqip.com also published an audio recording on July 30 in which the Prishtina Serious Crimes Prosecutor, Shemsije Asllani, was heard telling an unknown person that she will do her best to help him with the case.

Asllani is also heard claiming she has connections at the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, KIA, knows various judges and has “friends” in other institutions who protect her.

The chairman of the Supervisory Commission of the KIA told BIRN that the issues raised by this would be discussed at the commission’s next meeting.

The Prishtina Prosecution office told BIRN it had no information on whether a procedure against Asllani had been started based on the published recordings. Asllani also did not answer questions put by BIRN by the time of publication.

BIRN also contacted the Chief State Prosecutor, Aleksander Lumezi, the Chief Prosecutor of Prishtina, Kujtim Munishi and the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, but did not receive any answers from them by the time of publication either.

Minister of Justice Albulena Haxhiu on Wednesday said that in light of the audio recordings, there is no alternative other than to start a thorough vetting process in the judiciary. “Kosovo needs a vetting [system] and the Justice Ministry is working on this,” the minister said.

Civil society representatives said the recordings were no surprise. Ylli Zekaj, from the Kosovo Law Institute, told TV station Dukagjini on Tuesday that they only proved what was already being said for years.

“In our monitoring we have said that the state prosecution and the judiciary are influenced by different interest groups … The response from the state so far has been weak,” Zekaj said.

Zekaj said the public should be informed about the course of these processes, s the audio recordings would have an impact on people’s trust in the judiciary while the recordings confirm the need for a vetting of the judiciary.

Assembly committee approves list of PAK board nominees (media)

Kosovo Assembly's committee on economy, industry, entrepreneurship and trade approved, with six votes in favour and three against, the list of candidates for the board of the Privatisation Agency of Kosovo (PAK), proposed by the Government.

Mimoza Kusari-Lila, member of the committee from the Vetevendosje Movement, said she was convinced this will be the last PAK board before the agency is dissolved. "It is the last train to save the final assets that have not yet been sold with a minimal price as has been the case in the past," she said.

Opposition representatives to the committee objected to the names of the candidates saying they are politically affiliated with the Vetevendosje Movement.

Slovenia supports Kosovo’s efforts to join NATO, EU (Express)

Kosovo Minister of Defence Armend Mehaj hosted Wednesday newly appointed Slovenian Ambassador to Pristina, Minca Benedejcic.

According to a press release of the Ministry of Defence, Slovenian Ambassador Benedejcic expressed readiness of her country to support Kosovo’s membership into international security initiatives and organisations and offering of their support in integration processes of NATO and the EU. Both Mehaj and Bendejcic agreed that mutual cooperation in defence and security to be further strengthened.

Another former EULEX prosecutor wants to report to Kosovo legislators (Lajmi/Zeri)

Maria Bamieh, former prosecutor with EULEX, has made a request to the Kosovo Assembly's legislation committee to report before its members about what she said were the EU mission's scandals.

Bamieh said in a letter to the committee's chair, Adnan Rrustemi, that she has already testified before the European Parliament and would be willing to make the testimony before the Kosovo Assembly committee as well. She said that EULEX has not responded to the allegations she as well as her former colleague, Malcolm Simmons, have made against the mission and that she was still awaiting resolution of her case before a London court.

Over 38,000 vaccines arrive in Kosovo, half a million more expected from next week (media)

Kosovo received another 38,400 doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, procured, and delivered by UNICEF through COVAX Facility. This is the fourth shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Kosovo through COVAX, UNICEF in Kosovo said in a statement.

It added that another shipment of 521,820 doses Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is set to be delivered in the upcoming weeks. "With vaccines delivered to date and vaccines allocation for delivery in upcoming weeks, UNICEF through COVAX will cover 20% of Kosovo population."

WHO calls for moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots (media)

Several online media report on the call made by the World Health Organization for halting COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September so as to enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news briefing in Geneva on Wednesday that while he understood the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant, "we cannot and we should not accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it while the world's most vulnerable people remain unprotected."

COVID-19: 221 new cases, one death (media)

Kosovo’s Ministry of Health said yesterday that 221 new cases of COVID-19 and one death from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours. 21 persons recovered from the virus during this time.

There are 888 active cases with COVID-19.

14,616 vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. To date, 460,297 vaccines have been administered in Kosovo.