Prosecutor alleges bribery at EU Kosovo mission

(PRISTINA) - A British prosecutor at the European Union's police and justice mission in Kosovo on Tuesday accused top officials at the body of taking bribes to halt high-profile criminal cases.

The European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) refused to comment on the allegations but said the prosecutor herself, Maria Bamieh, had been suspended pending an internal inquiry into leaks of confidential documents.

EULEX was launched in 2008 in order to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo, just months after it broke away from Serbia, and now has 2,000 staff.

Its prosecutors and judges have the power to step in and take on sensitive cases that cannot be handled effectively by the local judiciary.

Asked if EULEX officials were taking bribes to halt some high-profile cases, Bamieh told AFP: "Yes."

She accuses three senior EULEX officials of taking bribes in 2012 and 2013 from local criminals to drop or obstruct three cases of organised crime including murder.

"I don't know what their (EULEX officials) explanations are, but it is my duty as a prosecutor to report this stuff if I come across it. If I didn't report it, they would say I was involved," Bamieh said.

"I cannot investigate these cases because now I'm a witness. I can't be a witness and an investigator, that would be wrong legally."

EULEX refused to comment directly on the allegations, instead saying that Bamieh -- who had a long career with the English Crown Prosecution Service -- was suspended last week over the probe into leaks.

"Whistleblowing does not mean you can leak confidential documents to the media, especially when a process has already been taken forward by the organisation," it said in a statement.

"Suspension is not a sanction, but the mission needed to act expeditiously to protect against the further leak of documents."

Bamieh, who has been with the unit since it was launched in December 2008 and most recently headed its financial crime team, said EULEX was punishing her as "they have something to hide".

"They were trying to punish me for what I found out innocently, I am just doing my job," she told AFP, saying the information she had "should shock the EU".

"They are wasting the money of the taxpayers, they are doing nothing for the people of Kosovo."

In Brussels, an EU spokeswoman said that any allegations of wrongdoing "are taken seriously".

"We've seen the report... We are working fully (on it) with our head of mission" in Pristina, Maja Kocijancic, said a spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton.

She said EULEX personnel were a "dedicated team of professionals who work in a very hard and difficult environment".

In June, the EU extended the mission by two years until June 2016.