On April 26, 2016, Kosovo Judicial Institute in cooperation with the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council and the Kosovo Police as well as with the support of the EU’s WINPRO II Project, implemented by NI*CO, has organized a round table on the topic: "Protection witnesses - Challenges in practical implementation of legislation.
The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss the current challenges, problems and practices in the Witness Protection Program and the role of judges, prosecutors and police in the implementation of this program.
In their opening speech the KJI’s ACT Director Mr. Besim Morina, ACT. Chief Prosecutor of special prosecution office Mr. Reshat Millaku and Sam Black expert from WNIPRO III project have stressed the importance of this roundtable which aims to serve as a forum where it will be evidenced the problems and proposed solutions for eliminating the ambiguities regarding the protection of witnesses, in particular inclusion of witness in Witness Protection Program.
In their presentations, the Prosecutor in the Chief State Prosecutor’s office Mr. Lulzim Sulejmani and Director of the Witness Protection Directorate Mr. Skender Rrahmani have presented the current situation concerning witnesses within the Witness Protection Program. It was emphasized that the Witness Protection Directorate is fully functional and possesses the latest technology in the implementation of the program, and all the measures provided by the law can be applied.
Participants in the roundtable assessed capabilities of the Witnesses Proteaction Directorate and stressed that this program is extremely important to combat serious criminal offenses. Among the main challenges that were discussed in this roundtable was the creation of the trust of witnesses for this program. In this aspect, the participants pledged to be engaged within their competences to contribute to proper presentation of the witness protection program. In particular, courts’ presidents and chief prosecutors vowed to encourage judges and prosecutors to submit applications for inclusion into the witness program.
At the end of the roundtable there were drawn conclusions and recommendations for the protection of witnesses in compliance with the legislation in force.
The Participants in this roundtable were presidents of courts, chief prosecutors, Kosovo Police and Correctional Service.
27-04-2016