How a British Judge Caused Turmoil at the EU’s Kosovo Mission

The end of 2017 was also the end of Malcolm Simmons' career as an international judge in the Balkans.

He had never served as a judge in his home country, as the Judicial Office in the UK confirmed, but had nevertheless managed to make it as far as becoming the president of the Assembly of Judges of EULEX - the European Union rule-of-law mission tasked with establishing rule of law and a justice system in Kosovo.

Simmons had also been the presiding judge in high-profile, politically-sensitive war crimes cases like the Klecka trial, which ended in the acquittal of Fatmir Limaj, a wartime Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla who went on to lead his own political party and serve as a minister after the war.

However, after two years of European Union investigations and three disciplinary hearings, Simmons was found culpable of misconduct and was ordered to be sent back to Britain, his home country.

For the past six years, Simmons has told anyone who will listen - including a Kosovo parliamentary committee in July 2021 - that he was a victim of political machinations by the EU. In a widely circulated article in Le Monde in November 2017, he described EULEX as a "farce" and claimed he resigned out of disgust.

However, the truth is that Simmons was appointed to positions for which he was not fully qualified - and the continuing consequences of this could still have an impact on an important witness intimidation case in The Hague.

BIRN spoke to Simmons himself as well as many of those with knowledge of what happened; they often requested anonymity in order to speak freely.

BIRN was also able to obtain the decisions from two out of the three EU disciplinary hearings that Simmons lost. The judgments support much...