The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, announced on Tuesday that she will not appoint Blerim Isufaj as Chief State Prosecutor.

Osmani said in a press conference that this is being done because of “massive violations in this process”. She added that she has also informed the Prosecution Council of Kosovo, PCK.

 According to her, there can be no constitutional functioning of the institutions if a process is not developed based on the respect of constitutional and legal procedures.

 “As you know, the process has been considered irregular, discriminatory, orchestrated, illegal, by all observers of the process, both by local organizations and by many of the international partners”, said Osmani.

Some of the violations found in the process of selecting the candidate for chief prosecutor which Osmani mentioned are: “avoiding the application of legal criteria in the selection of the chief prosecutor of the state; denying the possibility of an effective means of appeal within the PCK for dissatisfied candidates through the arbitrary rejection of the report of the committee for reconsideration of objections; violation of the procedures for assessing the professional reputation of candidates; violations in candidate integrity assessment procedures; violations in the procedures for evaluating the concept-document and its presentation by the candidates; violation of the principle of transparency throughout the selection procedures; violation of the principle of equality during the selection procedure of the chief prosecutor; violation of the principle of meritocracy throughout the selection procedures; and the deficiencies in the documentation submitted by the PCK despite the requests of the presidency to complete it”.

 The President emphasized that she has invited the PCK to follow a constitutional and legal procedure in the selection of the Chief State Prosecutor, “which is in function of protecting the integrity and constitutional functioning of this institution itself as well as in the function of increasing citizens’ trust in the justice system.”

Osmani justified her late action by saying she did not want to intervene in the legal procedures in any form.

“I have been exceptionally careful with my actions as President of Kosovo, to avoid any type of intervention in the justice, and I have contained from any type of decision-making that would hinder the process of the courts and the deadlines that the other candidates have for complaints,” said the president.

Osmani also spoke about some threats which she said she received from officials of justice institutions, but she said she will talk more about it in the following days.

On 13th of September, PCK decided to address President Osmani with an urgent letter for the decree of Blerim Isufaj as Chief State Prosecutor.

 The name of Blerim Isufaj for this position was proposed in April 2022. He was nominated for the new chief prosecutor of the State with 11 votes in favor.

Last year, Osmani had said in an interview on the show “Kallxo Përnime”, that every detail will be studied before the decision on whether or not to appoint Blerim Isufaj as Chief State Prosecutor.

 “It is not a decision that is made on the fly. The chief prosecutor in our justice system has a key role in the administration of justice, that’s why every detail will be studied”, she said.

She had even said that the decreeing process would not take long.