From the beginning of June, the Special Prosecution in Kosovo will be directed by local prosecutors under an almost identical organization.
The special prosecution will continue to have prosecutors from EULEX for at least the next two years.
They will continue to follow and investigate the cases already submitted.
The special prosecution deals with the most difficult cases. With a team of only 12 prosecutors, it is not possible to handle such a caseload over a long period of time.
The 14 departing international prosecutors should be replaced with local personnel in order to retain the same number of prosecutors.
Head prosecutor Sevdije Morina said there are five prosecutors with experience that are ready to work on sensitive cases such as war crimes.
Prosecutors sare are investigating 17 war crime cases, Morina said.
The greatest difficulty faced on these cases is that a long time has passed and they are consequently harder to investigate, Morina said.
War criminals should have been prosecuted immediately after the war and international prosecutors should have taken official evidence. Unfortunately, most of the evidence was taken informally and witnesses are leaving the area in increasing numbers, Morina said.
Of almost equal importance is the task force unit of investigators specialized in sensitive cases of corruption. In this Special Prosecution, there are seven prosecutors, Morina said.”
“We have received many requests from the Basic Court to bring cases and are currently examining which fall under our jurisdiction according to law.
Additionally, we are currently working on 11 terrorism cases,” Morina said.
None of the local prosecutors are working any of the political murder cases but they are investigating narcotic trafficking, collaborating with foreign states such as Germany, Albania, etc.
Working conditions are relatively good for the prosecutors but they require more office space. There is no evidence of any safety concerns and only one prosecutor has requested protection because of his work on the war crime cases , Morina said.