Statement of the Prosecutorial Council regarding the overthrow of the Law on the KPC by the Constitutional Court
Prishtinë, 25 March 2023 - The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council of (KPC) declares that the publication of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo on the Law of the Prosecutorial Council, which it has declared unconstitutional and finally overturned, fully confirms the positions and concerns expressed publicly by the representatives of the prosecutorial system, so that this law is not approved as such.
KPC declares that even after the decision of the Constitutional Court, free speech has been misused again, this misuse, which is and remains completely outside the democratic right, and even more so when it comes from the highest officials of the state. Even today, such statements were heard from the Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, at the media conference, which coincide with a recklessness and irresponsibility so pronounced that they go as far as contesting the acts issued by the highest constitutional institution, asserting that "the most important thing for them is the individual interest of some members of the KPC" and beyond that, a senior official of the Government, surprisingly, does not agree with the decision of a higher institution, such as the Constitutional Court.
Previously, for the sake of public transparency, the KPC has expressed its position to the public several times through successive statements and reactions regarding the irregular progress of the drafting process of the KPC Draft Law and the introduction of tendentious elements and dysfunctional, as well as for the dizzying rush of the Ministry of Justice and the Government to proceed and approve this draft law, without consulting the final draft with the actors of this process and without waiting for the additional comments of the Venice Commission.
Also, the KPC has systematically emphasized the expressed defects of the Executive regarding the failure to take into account the proposals issued by the Strategy for the Rule of Law and the proposals of the representatives of the prosecutorial system and other actors of the justice system or outside it, which in reality constituted openly a tendency to undermine the independence of the KPC and the State Prosecutor, as independent and constitutional institutions.
In this context, therefore, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo removed all the existing dilemmas related to this issue, firstly, by taking a decision to overturn the Law on the Prosecutorial Council and, secondly, by preventing the infringement of the independence of the KPC and the legislation of political influences in the prosecutorial system of the Republic of Kosovo.
KPC asserts that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo, by issuing this fair decision, affirms once and for all the constitutional right to political non-interference, which fundamentally violates the independence of state prosecutors and the independence of the prosecutorial system in general.
The Kosovo Prosecutorial Council declares that it remains committed to supporting the general reform processes in the prosecutorial system and will make efforts in the future to cooperate with all state mechanisms of the country, supporters and valuable international partners in all kinds of legislative initiatives and other initiatives, which aim at the necessary reform, in order to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo and the prosecutorial system of Kosovo to do its work independently, professionally, transparently, without being exposed to any kind of interference or pressure from different parties.
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