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Summer cleaning in Kosovo

(BRUSSELS2) EULEX judges and police have been busy this summer. July was a particularly busy month for the European anti-corruption specialists present in the young independent state and their Kosovar counterparts in the SPRK. A few high-flying suspects were thus the target of the men and women with the blue and yellow armband. Result of several months of investigation. Beautiful people!

A major anti-corruption crackdown

A former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health and his adviser were arrested on July 13 on charges of tax evasion. A former Pristina district judge, accused of having had a very light hand in the prosecution, was also arrested. In mid-July, a dozen inspectors then searched eight different places - in Pristina and Peja - as well as the home of the Director of Posts and Telecoms (PTK), accused of having used the signature lucrative telecom licensing contracts to Dardafon Mobile. The computer administrator of the Kosovo government was also arrested, accused of cleaning up hard drives and other electronic traces, and was arrested shortly afterwards. On July 8, it was the turn of the governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo, accused of having abused his position a little for having received a few prebends and facilitating money laundering as well as tax evasion. Half a dozen searches took place at the homes of 23 suspects.

...and 3 files of war criminals

In the field of war crimes, the summer will also have been fruitful. Since three investigations were pursued:
- search of the home of one of the leaders of the KLA (Kosovo liberation army), who was summoned to court in the Bllaca affair (this former agent of the Kosovar secret services, the Shik, who revealed that he had part of a commando responsible for executing "collaborators" of the Serbian regime, in particular executives of the LDK, the party of Rugova, and a competitor of Thaci;
- arrest of a man accused of war crimes in June 1999 in Lipjan;
- and the detention of a third, a Kosovar Serb, extradited from Norway, and accused of crimes against civilians in the Pec region, on March 28, 1999. On that day, the Serb and Yugoslav forces had forced the Albanians of Kosovo to leave the area, burning down houses and killing residents.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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