Kosovo's top prosecutor indicted over bribe

(PRISTINA) - The EU mission in Kosovo said Thursday that Kosovo's top anti-corruption prosecutor had been charged with abuse of authority for accepting bribes, the mission said.

An EU judge "confirmed the indictment against former special prosecutor of the Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo (SPRK) and former head of the Anti-Corruption Task Force within the SPRK Nazmi Mustafi", the EU rule of law mission EULEX said in a press release.

"The main allegation is that in collaboration with two other defendants, he took money to cancel the house arrest and terminate the investigation against the former liquidator of Bank of Kosovo," EULEX spokesman Blerim Krasniqi told AFP.

Mustafi was arrested in April, but his indictment only became officially effective after its confirmation.

The prosecutor headed the special anti-corruption task force established by Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci in 2010 to deal with high profile corruption cases.

EULEX was launched in Kosovo just months after its declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 and has the power to step in and prosecute cases considered too sensitive for the local judiciary.

Corruption continues to be a serious problem in Kosovo, with international and local watchdogs warning that Pristina was lacking the political will to fight it.

On Transparency International's 2011 corruption perception index, Kosovo was ranked 112th of 183 countries.