No cover-up at EU Kosovo mission, legal expert finds

Brussels, 14 April 2015 (MIA) - The European Union‘s law-enforcing mission in Kosovo did not try to cover up corruption allegations against some of its members, a report released on Tuesday said, while not taking a position on the corruption claims themselves.

"It is not for me to enter into judgment on the allegations of complicity in corruption, which are a matter for the judicial inquiry," wrote Jean-Paul Jacque, a senior EU legal advisor who was commissioned to carry out a review last year.

The EULEX mission was launched in 2008 after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, and was meant to help Pristina build state institutions and assert the rule of law.

A Kosovo-Albanian newspaper published allegations last October that senior EULEX officials had taken bribes to secure the acquittal of some defendants and accused the EU mission of trying to suppress the story.

A EULEX prosecutor, Maria Bamieh, also said she was suspended after blowing the whistle on her colleagues.

Jacque said the cover-up allegations "fortunately turned out to be unfounded." He did note, however, that they could have been avoided altogether if an investigation had been immediately launched into the claims, rather than resorting to "secret and special procedures."

All names are redacted from the report, but Jacque also wrote that the whistleblower involved faced a "justified" suspension and disciplinary procedures.

The EULEX mission has suffered "considerable harm" because of the case, the expert warned.

"Its credibility has been damaged to the point that its actions will henceforth often be tainted with suspicion and every decision to convict or not to convict will risk being criticized on the basis of possible corruption," Jacque wrote in the report.

"It will be for the competent authorities to decide on the future of the mission," he added, while noting that "Kosovo‘s judicial system does not yet seem capable of meeting the challenges posed by corruption and the organized crime linked to it.