“They said it would be an act of treason if the so-called Kosovo judicial and prosecutorial councils ruled in favor of the Serb judges and prosecutors,” Petkovic told reporters.
He recalled that Serb staff, along with police officers and other officials, had walked out of Pristina’s interim institutions in early November 2022.
“We are talking about key agreements from the dialogue that provide for Serbs to have access to justice, given that Kurti’s judiciary serves only as a club against Serbs and as a tool whenever Serbs need to be persecuted, whenever weekend houses need to be torn down, whenever Serbs need to be arrested simply for wearing T-shirts with Serbian emblems,” Petkovic said.
He added that without international mediation, there would be no Serb presence in the institutions at all.
“Because if it were up to Kurti, there wouldn’t be any Serbs left in Kosovo and Metohija,” Petkovic said.
Petkovic demands the EU step in
The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija pointed to the 2013 Brussels Agreement, the 2015 agreement on the judiciary, and that agreement’s 2016 conclusions, singling out Article 10 of the Brussels Agreement, which he says spells out Pristina’s obligations under the judiciary deal.
“That’s why the EU exists. It took on the role of leading the dialogue, it is the facilitator of the dialogue, and it bears responsibility for the implementation of all the agreements, since it put its own signature on the 2013 Brussels Agreement, where Article 10, among other things, clearly states Pristina’s obligations under the agreement on the judiciary,” Petkovic said.
The decision does not itself finalize the dismissals
The Judicial Council’s decision does not by itself dismiss the judges. The proposals now go to acting president Aljbuljena Hadziju, who has said she will not wait to act.