Kosovo Speaker Spurns Reform of MPs' Immunity

Last week, the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX asked the speaker of parliament, Jakup Krasniqi, to clarify the issue of the immunity from arrest of MPs who are under investigation. 

In theory, if 61 of the 120 MPs vote to do so, parliament can lift an MP's immunity, acting on the advice from the public prosecutor. In pratice, it has never happened.

Krasniqi said the EULEX request had no basis, as it was not parliament’s job to deal with the immunity issue.  

The speaker said it was up to the government of Hashim Thaci to seek an opinion on the issue from the Constitutional Court.

Passing the buck further, Prime Minister Thaci responded that his office had not received any such request from EULEX and he would not interfere in parliament's work.

The issue of MPs' immunity has further divided two fractions of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, to which both Krasniqi and Thaci belong, which have disagreed repeatedly on a number of issues since the last general election. 

In an interview for Voice of America, the US ambassador to Kosovo, Christopher Dell, strongly criticised Krasniqi's handling of the issue. 

He said that Krasniqi had "chosen to challenge the international community, to challenge Kosovo’s best friends, in the name of protecting one or two friends”.

The immunity of MPs has become a growing issue in Kosovo since EULEX in March failed to arrest former transport minister Fatmir Limaj for suspected war crimes owing to his immunity. 

Prosecutors from the EU rule of law mission questioned Limaj in March but did not arrest him. Though a member of parliament, immunity does not prevent police from investigating allegations.

Limaj, who remains a popular figure in Kosovo, has already faced a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY. 

He was charged, along with Isak Musliu and Haradin Bala, with committing war crimes against Serbs and Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serbia during the Kosovo war.

In November 2005 he was acquitted and returned home to a hero’s welcome, with street celebrations in the capital, Pristina.

Limaj is not the only MP who is under investigation. 

Another two MP’s, Azem Syla and Shaip Muja, high-ranking members of the PDK, and elected to parliament for the first time in last December’s election, are subject to investigations. 

Muja is being investigated as part of EULEX's probe into organ trafficking at the Medicus clinic on the outskirts of Pristina in 2008. Muja was health advisor to Thaci at the time. 

Muja has not been charged but a number of other individuals have and a trial is expected to start soon.

Syla is under investigation in connection with an ongoing murder trial involving a number of alleged political assassinations carried out by the PDK's former intelligence service, SHIK. 

Syla was a key figure in the organisation, which, it claims, has been disbanded.