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EU to name expert to review Kosovo mission corruption charges

04 November 2014, 20:14 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said Tuesday she will appoint an independent legal expert to review allegations of corruption at the European Union's justice mission in Kosovo.

EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) and Kosovo judicial authorities have already launched a joint investigation into allegations that some top EULEX officials had taken bribes to drop criminal cases.

"I intend to appoint as a matter of urgency an independent and experienced legal expert to review the mission's mandate implementation with a particular focus on the handling of the allegations of corruption," Mogherini told a press conference in Brussels.

Mogherini said she would communicate the name of the expert once one has been appointed, which she hoped would happen within "a reasonable time framework."

"This is in our interests... to be completely transparent, to be completely reliable in terms of credibility" of EULEX, she said.

She added that the expert's work will not substitute for that of the judiciary.

The allegations were made last week by Maria Bamieh, a British prosecutor at EULEX who has been suspended pending an internal inquiry into leaks of confidential documents.

Bamieh told AFP a week ago that EULEX officials were taking bribes to halt some high-profile cases.

She accused EU mission chief prosecutor Jaroslava Novotna, a Czech national, and former EU chief judge Francesco Florit of Italy of taking bribes from local criminals to drop three cases of organised crime, including murder. The bribes were allegedly taken in 2012 in 2013.

Local media reported that both Novotna and Florit were offered 350,000 euros ($441,000) each.

Bamieh also claimed that her boss, Canadian prosecutor Jonathan Ratel, was obstructing her in unveiling the information.

EULEX is the EU's largest civilian mission. It was launched in 2008 in order to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo, just months after it broke away from Serbia. Currently it has some 1,500 members.

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


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