“Pronto” Case in a Nutshell

January 21, 2020

In Kosovo’s society corruption is manifested in various forms, ranging from abuse of office, bribery and clientelism, etc. These forms of corruption undoubtedly affect the lives of the citizens of RKS and the building of its institutions. As a secondary form of corruption that is largely present in Kosovo is nepotism. This phenomenon is mainly due to the employment of relatives or close friends in high government positions, regardless of their merits and abilities.

We can say that this phenomenon has already become a practice for each political party taking power to appoint close persons who are loyal to party’s policies on the boards of public enterprises. The appointment of party members to the boards of publicly owned enterprises in Kosovo is one of the processes that has been repeatedly criticized by civil society and the international community.

One such case, which has exposed the phenomenon of illegal employment in senior public enterprise positions, is the case analyzed by Justice Today, known in public as the “Pronto” affair. The so-called “Pronto” case caused great public concern because for the first time in Kosovo, the actions and methods of employment of some individuals in state positions were discovered and publicized through the media, from the party interference of senior officials of Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). At the same time senior party officials such as its former chairman and at the same time Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci at that time, the current PDK chairman Kadri Veseli and other responsible persons in the party were involved in this affair. Therefore, the fact that the current President Hashim Thaçi and former Parliament Speaker Kadri Veseli were involved in the wiretaps, displays a sufficient indicator that the Prosecutor’s Office should have held them accountable and responsible for their acctions, which has not happened. On this note, one can conclude that the approach used by the justice institutions on dealing with this case has been weak and presents a failure of the prosecution system to prosecute crime and corruption in the country.

Moreover, the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo (SPRK) did not even invite them in the quality of a witness in the criminal proceedings against other defendants in the case. These two initial actions of the prosecution, which are also considered as crucial actions in resolving the case, are considered sufficient indicators to assess that this institution, in the first steps of the development of this procedure, has substantially failed to handle it. Consequently, the Basic Court in Prishtina has failed to bring justice to the present case as the SPRK has failed to build and represent the state interest before this court.

Therefore, in order to analyze the manner in which SPRK and Basic Court in Prishtina handled this criminal case, this analysis will deal with the indictment and court proceedings until the acquittal judgement is reached. This is aimed at identifying the procedural and professional violations and errors caused by the institutions concerned which led to the conclusion of the case by acquittal.

To access the Albanian version, please click here.


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