On April 17, the European Commission released its lengthy and detailed report on Kosovo for 2018. As a former international judge with the European Union Rule of Law Mission, EULEX, from 2011-13, I was particularly interested in the report’s analysis of the Kosovo judiciary.
While the report thoroughly analyses many aspects of the judicial system, such as corruption and political interference, I will limit my comments to what the report refers to as “judicial efficiency”, particularly as it relates to the Medicus case.
The report states that “the judicial system needs to ensure proper follow-up of all high-profile cases, including cases handed over by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX)”.
The Medicus case was a high-profile case that apparently was handed over to local judicial authorities by EULEX. This decision was a serious mistake that resulted in disastrous consequences.
The report also refers to shortcomings in the Criminal Procedure Code that seriously hamper efficiency by being too “formalistic”, and to the tendency of the Appellate Courts to send cases back to the Basic Courts for retrials which wastes valuable time and resources.
The Medicus case presents a stark and unfortunate example of these problems as well.
The case began in November 2008 when a young Turkish man collapsed at the airport in Pristina and claimed that his kidney had been removed at a nearby medical clinic called Medicus. The police were notified and went immediately to the clinic to investigate the possibility of illegal kidney trafficking.
At the clinic, they discovered an elderly Israeli man still recovering from a kidney transplant which appeared to be illegal. The police then conducted a thorough search of the clinic, and seized medications, voluminous medical documents and other evidence for review by forensic experts.
After a two-year investigation involving many foreign countries, Jonathan Ratel, the experienced EULEX prosecutor from Canada who worked tirelessly on this case, filed an indictment in late 2010 against seven individuals, alleging trafficking in human organs, organised crime and other serious crimes. The indictments claimed that dozens of illegal kidney transplants had occurred at the clinic during 2008 involving kidney donors from poor countries who had been mercilessly exploited.
The defendants included a prominent urologist who owned the Medicus Clinic and his son, who managed the clinic. Also indicted were three anaesthesiologists who worked at the clinic and two high governmental officials.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
