The Prosecution Council calls on Kurti to stop "blackmailing" prosecutors and judges

2023-08-19 19:35:37, Aktualitet CNA

The Prosecution Council calls on Kurti to stop "blackmailing"

The Prosecutorial Council of Kosovo (KPK) strongly condemned on Saturday Prime Minister Albin Kurti's statements about "corrupt old elite" prosecutors and judges, after the arrest of two officials of the Ministry of Industry on suspicion of misuse of state reserves on August 18 .

Speaking late Friday after the raids and arrests, Kurti described the media and the judge's prosecutors as "supporters of crime", while he defended the Minister of Industry, Enterprise and Trade (MINT), Rozeta Hajdari.

"You find the losers in the old and corrupt political elite, in the court and its prosecutors, in the misused media to support crime. Even though they are few in number, their profits have been multi-millions, so they can't help but feel like big losers", Kurti said on August 18 in a video on his Facebook profile.

The Prosecution Council of Kosovo (KPK) has responded to Kurti through a statement late Saturday, calling his statements "untrue and lynching against the Prosecution Institution and its prosecutors, made on the basis of prejudices and conjectures, attempting to attack the prosecutorial system in any way and in any case."

"The KPK called on the Prime Minister and the ministers of his government cabinet to refrain from continuous blackmailing and therefore demeaning statements towards the prosecutorial system of Kosovo in general and towards the work of prosecutors in particular, attempting to publicly lynch anything that it has to do with the prosecutorial system and the work of state prosecutors", said the Prosecutorial Council.

The Basic Court of Pristina today ordered two officials of the Ministry of Industry and another suspect, who were arrested on August 18, under suspicion of misuse of state reserves, to be detained for one month each.

The Ministry of Industry, Enterprise and Trade yesterday confirmed that two of the arrested are its officials.

MINT announced on Friday that the police raided the offices of two of its senior officials: the director of the state reserves department, Hafiz Gara, and the director of the European integration department, Irfan Lipovica.

Minister Hajdari said on Friday that during the raids, the police took documents as evidence, which are classified as state secrets.

She said that the Kosovo Police "did not present a secret security certificate", adding that the receipt of these documents was done in violation of the Law on the Protection of Classified Information.

Hajdari added that there is no doubt about the officials who have been detained today, while also answering the question of whether he will resign: "I see no reason to resign, I say this with full responsibility", she said.

"I inform you that only 3 percent of the total supply we had delays during the year 2022, for which the delay was also notified to the State Bar on June 8, 2023 by our deputy secretary for the initiation of court proceedings", said Hajdari when asked if the goods purchased for state reserves have reached Kosovo.

The action of law enforcement authorities in MINT comes after the publication of several audio recordings from the National portal, where the officials of this ministry claim that the oil contracted and paid for in Poland for the state reserves of Kosovo never arrived. According to the audio-recordings, the same thing happened with the wheat stocks./ REL