The State Department included the issue of detention of arrested Serbs in the Human Rights Report in Kosovo

In the US State Department's Report on Human Rights in Kosovo for 2022, the issue of detention of arrested Serbs was included as one of the problems.

"Long detentions, an average of six months, both before and during court proceedings, continue to be a problem," the Report on Human Rights in Kosovo states, among other things.

As stated, the law allows judges to detain defendants until trial, if there is reasonable suspicion that they are likely to destroy, hide or falsify evidence, influence witnesses, flee, repeat the offense, participate in another criminal act, or fail to appear in court later.

It is added that long-term detention is partly a consequence of the inefficiency of the judiciary, as well as corruption.

The Ombudsperson institution announced that there is no assessment of whether pretrial detention often equals or exceeds the maximum sentence for alleged criminal acts.

The report states that Kosovo Serb leaders have expressed concern over the lengthy pretrial detention of two people arrested in December 2021 on corruption charges, which carry a sentence of one to five years.

"The law prohibits pre-trial detention of more than four months for criminal offenses for which a prison sentence of less than five years is prescribed. As of October, no formal indictment has been filed," the Report states.

Among the problems mentioned in the report there are crimes or threats against ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups.

It is added that the law foresees criminal sanctions for officials involved in corruption, but that the Government did not implement the law in its entirety.

"There were several cases of reporting corruption in the government. Officials aresometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The lack of effective judicial oversight and the fragility of law enforcement have led to this problem," the Report states.

The Report 2022 also mentions that non-governmental organizations in Kosovo, as well as international organizations, have several times highlighted the failure of the justice system to punish cases of corruption, and therefore very few cases of high officials, including these offenses, ended with punishments.

Moreover, in the section on corruption, two major investigations into corruption on the border between Kosovo and Albania were mentioned.

Also, the document states that serious corruption in the government and lack of investigation and accountability for gender-based violence are among the problems.

It mentions the rape of an eleven-year-old girl in Pristina by five suspects, one adult and four minors, as well as the murder of a 35-year-old pregnant woman in the yard of the University Clinical Center in November, as well as the fact that the suspect, her husband, escaped arrest and committed suicide two days later.