Several hundred citizens gathered in Mitrovica on Monday demanding Oliver Ivanovic, the Head of the Citizens Initiative Freedom, Democracy, Justice (SDP), to be released pending trial immediately.
The half an hour-long protest was held in front of the building of the Basic Court in Mitrovica where the regional central office of EULEX is located as well. The protestors hung a sign on the court's gate reading "EULEX's court a dungeon".
Office for Kosovo and Metohija requested that leader of the Citizens' Initiative SDP, Oliver Ivanovic, who spent more than year and a half in custody without any legal logic and international legal standards, should be immediately released.
The European Union’s biggest foreign mission has been accused of using its powers to try to silence a whistleblower who claims to have uncovered evidence of possible corruption.
Former EULEX prosecutor and whistleblower Maria Bamieh has been threatened with a lawsuit by EULEX lawyers if she disclosed any information regarding her own lawsuit against her former employer. EULEX has addressed the employment tribunal in London asking for full confidentiality in the process. This would prevent the media from reporting on aspects of the case despite the huge publicity it has attracted worldwide.
The paper on its front page editorial today writes that nothing new is expected to happen even though the Kosovo Assembly adopted a Resolution on EULEX, through which President Atifete Jahjaga would write a letter to the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini asking her to investigate corruption allegations within this mission. According to the paper, the Kosovo Assembly should not adopt resolutions but should chose the legal ways to fight corruption and organized crime.
The Assembly of Kosovo has endorsed today with majority of votes, Vetevendosje’s Resolution for EULEX mission in Kosovo, debated on Wednesday. From the 63 deputies present at this session, 23 of them voted for, 23 abstained while 17 were against. The content of the Resolution is below.
Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) Bilall Sherifi in an opinion piece published in Zeri and several online media writes that since the end of the conflict in Kosovo, prosecution of war crimes was an exclusive competency of international missions in Kosovo. Initially, it was UNMIK that investigated and tried war crimes until 2008 when this responsibility was handed over to EULEX.
The EU Office in Kosovo, through a clarification to media, stated that it has no knowledge of the existence of any confidential report on Kosovo involving EULEX and PDK officials, a copy of which was published by the media few weeks ago. "We have no knowledge of such report and therefore cannot speculate on who and with what motives drafted it,” read the press statement. “However we can confirm that the report was not prepared by EULEX, the EEAS or the European Commission, nor by any of these organizations."
“Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija lost the confidence in EULEX after ungrounded detentions of Serbs and after many unprofessional moves. The last act when convicted Sami Lushtaku was allowed to attend a football match is the most shameful act in the mandate of EULEX, which is supposed to ensure the Rule of law,” reads the statement of Civic Initiative “Freedom, Democracy, Justice” (SDP).
Adriatik Kelmendi writes about the decision of the court to sentence former General Commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Sylejman Selimi, with 14 years of prison. “There is no greater hierarchical sentence for some KLA member. One cannot find more reliable judges (in principal) than those of the EU states, or to cut it short: Our chief commander of our liberation war was sentenced by European judges. This is bad news, in fact the worst that Kosovo received lately.