Kosovo Judicial Council

The Kosovo Judicial Council, KJC, has suspended Kacanik Judge Riza Livoreka, only 24 hours after BIRN's Kallxo Pernime show revealed footage of the judge illegally negotiating a deal between parties involved in a trial outside of court, warning that otherwise their property would be confiscated.

Kosovo civil society activists protested on Tuesday in front of the Kosovo Judicial Council in Pristina after a verdict handed down by a local court in the town of Peja/Pec sentenced a man to eight months and eight days in prison for sexually abusing a 15-year-old.

Kosovo's Chief Prosecutor, Aleksander Lumezi, has asked the Special Prosecution to investigate published audio recordings in which state officials and members of the judiciary are allegedly heard implicating themselves in abuse of power.

Albin Kurti's hopes of becoming Prime Minister of Kosovo once again have been set back after the Central Election Commission, CEC, on Wednesday said 15 of the 28 political entities that had applied to run in the February 14 snap elections had proposed candidates "not in line with the Law on General Elections, which specifies that a person who has been found guilty of a criminal charge in the la

He and others were held by the KLA in the mountains of northern Albania until June 1999. After the war officially ended, he and three other detainees were brought to a building in Prizren in Kosovo. A week later, he managed to escape.

Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, told BIRN on Monday that a landmark agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, unifying the justice system in Kosovo, will come into force on Tuesday.

An agreement on integrating the justice system in the Serb-run north of Kosovo with the justice system in Kosovo generally - signed between Kosovo and Serbia on February 10, 2015 - is due to take force on October 17.

However, with only a few weeks to go, whether it will happen remains unclear, as both sides differ on how ready they are.