Prishtina, 5 April 2014.

Today, FOL Movement held a press conference presenting the annual anti-corruption statistics of activities of the Police, Prosecution and Courts in Kosovo during 2013. The conference announced the launch of the 2013 Anti-Corruption Statistics Platform update by FOL Movement, and provided a forum of discussion on the decisions and actions of the Assembly and Government of Kosovo and European Rule of Law mission – EULEX in the field of fighting corruption in Kosovo in 2013.

Police in Kosovo

Fidan Kalaja from FOL Movement said that during 2013, Kosovo Police had handled 57 cases involving corruption offenses related to bribe-taking. Of these cases, criminal charges have been filed against 22 people and 12 people have subsequently been arrested. Kosovo Police also handled 43 corruption offenses related to bribe-giving. Of these cases, criminal charges have been filed against 16 people and 10 people have subsequently been arrested. Regarding cases relating to abuse of authority, Kosovo Police handled 441 cases of corruption, filing criminal charges against 242 people and arresting 45 people.

Prosecution in Kosovo

In 2013 the Kosovo Prosecutor dealt with bribe-taking offences where 56 people were implicated; among these cases the prosecution solved 30 cases, whereas 26 cases remained unsolved. On the corruption offense regarding the offering of bribes, the Kosovo Prosecutor dealt with cases where 59 persons had been implicated and solved cases involving 36 people, whereas 23 cases remained unsolved at the end of 2013. And on the corruption offense regarding abuse of authority, the Kosovo Prosecutor dealt with cases where 1,585 people were implicated during 2013. Among all these cases the prosecution solved cases involving 363 people. Cases involving 1,222 people had remained unsolved.

Courts in Kosovo

According to Kalaja, during 2013, Kosovo’s Courts dealt with cases implicating 122 people in the corruption offence regarding bribe-taking. 31 people were convicted, whereas cases with 91 people remained unsolved at the end of this period. On the corruption offense regarding bribe-giving Kosovo’s Courts dealt with cases implicating 67 people; 23 people were convicted for these offences, whereas cases involving the remaining 44 people were unsolved at the end of 2013. And for the corruption offense regarding abuse of authority, 603 people were implicated in cases taken to court in 2013. 66 people were convicted, whereas cases involving the remaining 537 people remained unsolved at the end of this period.

Fidan Kalaja further mentioned that besides the three institutions involved in this platform, FOL Movement has been monitoring the anti-corruption activities of three other institutions as well, such as the Government, Parliament and EULEX.

According to the findings of FOL Movement, the Kosovan Government in 2013 has approved a total of 427 decisions. Among them only 4 decisions were with reference to the fight against corruption, compared with 5 in 2012.

Meanwhile, from the 23 plenary sessions held in the Kosovan Assembly in 2013, 6 of them discussed the fight against corruption. In 2012, only 3 sessions discussed the issue.

According to anti-corruption statistics for 2013 from EULEX, EULEX courts held only nine trials on corruption cases while EULEX prosecution during 2013 has dealt with nine new cases, has conducted 29 preliminary investigations, there were 15 ongoing investigations, has filed five charges, has amended 2 charges, and confirmed 2 charges.

Resource

» Platform of Anti-Corruption Statistics in Kosovo

About Fidan Kalaja

Fidan Kalaja is Program Manager and Deputy Executive Director at FOL Movement Kosovo.