NGO Aktiv organised a public debate within its Mitrovica Social Club on the occasion of the first anniversary since the integration of judiciary, Radio kontakt plus reported.

Judge of Kosovo Supreme Court Jelena Krivokapic said perhaps the only and the biggest advantage of integration is that citizens do not have to seek justice before two different courts, i.e. in two different legal systems.

“That is the only thing we can say it has changed, everything else is still in a bad condition. We did not do well as society when it comes to integration, because someone is still being held back by the translation, some by the law, some are held back by actions and others by the space...” Krivokapic noted.

Krivokapic also said that in the last 12 months there have been almost no cases from the north of Kosovo that came to the Supreme Court of Kosovo.

“Unfortunately, there almost aren’t any, as far as the lawsuit is concerned, there are no cases from Mitrovica, and I am terribly sorry, because I see that the problems of the citizens from the north of Kosovo are not being solved. This is a clear indication, if the case does not reach the Supreme Court, then their problems are not being solved, because this is the last instance and at this court, one can correct the errors, if there were any, made by the Basic Court or Court of Appeals, however, there are no new cases” Krivokapic said.

“There may have been some adjudication, but it did not come through, not even to the Appeals. As for criminal cases, after the integration, not a single case came to the Supreme Court. Those cases that are being solved within the criminal proceedings, were done before the integration, this means they were handled by the Kosovo judges and prosecutors in Vucitrn, but there are no new cases” she said.

Speaking at the same event, Director of Advocacy Centre for Democratic Culture Dusan Radakovic said the integrated Kosovo judiciary has been facing, more or less, same problems for a year.

Radakovic recalled the problems with translation, large number of unresolved cases, problems citizens have with documentation and cases whose statute of limitation has expired, and so on.