EU jails Kosovo mayor for not cooperating in probe

(PRISTINA) - An EU judge on Tuesday jailed the mayor of a town in southern Kosovo for up to a month because he has refused to cooperate in a criminal investigation, the EU mission (EULEX) in Kosovo said.

"A pre-trial judge at Pristina District Court has ordered the imprisonment for one month of Blerim Kuqi," the mayor of Suva Reka municipality, the EULEX rule of law mission said in a statement.

"The sentence follows Mr Kuqi's repeated refusal to answer a prosecutor's questions relating to a criminal investigation," it added without going into details about the probe.

Kuqi, a former commander of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), is a high-ranking official in the AAK party of former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj.

EULEX added the imprisonment could last for as long as the witness refuses to testify or until his testimony becomes unnecessary, "but shall not exceed one month."

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 and is recognised by 75 countries, including the United States and all but five EU member states.

The EU launched EULEX at the end of the same year in Kosovo to oversee the rule of law in the newly declared country.

EU judges have the power to intervene in cases that are too sensitive for the local judiciary to tackle.