Aleksander Lumezi

Chief State Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi said on Wednesday evening that the arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic, suspected of being one of the heads of a criminal organsiation that murdered political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, was withdrawn for "technical and tactical reasons" but insisted that "the criminal case against him continues".

The US, British, German, French and Italian embassies asked the Kosovo authorities on Tuesday to finally implement a six-year-old ruling granting parcels of land to the medieval Decani Monastery which had been claimed by two Kosovo companies.

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.

Kosovo's Finance Minister has announced the dismissal of the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit after he discussed plans to control the media for his own personal interests in leaked audio recordings.

Dardan Nuhiu was sacked on Tuesday after the recordings of him talking about abusing his position were published early this week.

The Basic Court at Peje/Pec in Kosovo has ordered the reopening of the trial for the murder of a 29-year-old following a series of dramatic developments in recent days that caught public attention.

"The main trial is reopened," Presiding Judge Violeta Husaj Rugova declared on Friday, explaining that further completion of "the criminal proceedings" was now necessary.

International and local Kosovo press associations have condemned the attack against an investigative journalist who was brutally beaten near his house in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje, at around midnight on Wednesday.

Kosovo police officer stands at the entrance of the Agency for Development of Agriculture on a raid on February 24, 2021. Photo: BIRN

Confirming the arrests, Chief Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi said that 10 of them are officials and two are ordinary citizens.

Sanije Rexha and Kushtrim Balaj, both former officials of the Division of Internal and External Control at Kosovo's Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, went on trial for abuse of office at Pristina Basic Court on Monday in a case connected to a major scandal over fraudulent applications for the official status of verified Kosovo Liberation Army war veteran.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has called for an investigation into claims that members of the national election commission, the CEC, suffered an allergic reaction after opening poisoned envelopes containing ballots cast in Serbia. He called for restraint until the probe finishes.

BIRN Kosovo's new report, which highlights failings by the country's courts and prosecutors in tackling corruption cases in 2018, was launched at an event in Pristina on Thursday.