Transparency Questions Raised About Selection of Kosovo’s Chief Prosecutor

Zejnullah Gashi accepting the position of Chief State Prosecutor, July 15, 2026. Photo: Kosovo Prosecutorial System/Facebook

Zejnullah Gashi assumed office as Kosovo’s Chief State Prosecutor on Wednesday following a selection process that is alleged to have failed to meet standards on transparency, merit-based evaluation and integrity assessments, according to a report by BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova monitors.

“I will be a Chief State Prosecutor for everyone, and together we will work to strengthen the rule of law,” Gashi said during the ceremony. 

But in the report examining the recruitment process, BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova concluded that the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, KPC, conducted the appointment through a process that limited public access and did not verify candidates’ integrity before making its final decision.

Gashi has been Chief Prosecutor of the Pristina Basic Prosecution since 2023. 

The Chief Prosecutor’s mandate is for seven years and starts four years after former Chief Prosecutor Aleksander Lumezi’s term ended in 2022. Former President Vjosa Osmani refused to decree another candidate, Blerim Isufaj, for the position, which has been held in an acting capacity since then.

Acting President Albulena Haxhiu signed the decree appointing Gashi on July 14, one day after the KPC nominated him.

“I expect Chief Prosecutor Gashi to carry out this duty with the highest standards of professional and moral integrity, impartiality and courage, always demonstrating strong commitment to the state and its citizens, in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Kosovo,” Haxhiu wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. 

She claimed to have consulted reports by civil society organisations monitoring the recruitment process before signing the decree. However, BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova were not contacted or asked to present their own findings.

During the previous recruitment process, then-President Osmani declined to appoint Blerim Isufaj as Chief State Prosecutor after BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova presented concerns about the integrity of the process.

The KPC released the detailed evaluation documents on July 13 when it nominated Gashi, so depriving civil society of the opportunity to see the evaluations before the decision was made.

Rather than publishing each evaluator’s original scoring sheets and detailed explanations, the KPC released only a summary of panel members’ reasoning.

In previous merit-based recruitment processes they monitored under a project supported by the British Embassy, evaluation panels disclosed and explained the scores awarded to each candidate before the monitoring organisations completed their assessments.

BIRN Kosovo and Internews Kosova requested access to the individual scoring sheets and written justifications from each evaluation panel member on July 6 and the KPC had scheduled access to those documents for July 13 – but then cancelled the meeting shortly before it took place.

One of the main findings of the BIRN report relates to the evaluation of candidates’ integrity.

According to BIRN and Internews Kosova, all five candidates received the maximum score of 20 for integrity. However, the panel did not conduct any further review of allegations against the candidates’ own statements. 

During his interview for the position on July 1, Gashi said that “neither I nor my family have ever been involved in anything that would undermine our integrity, whether personal or institutional”.

In May this year, however, a BIRN investigation showed that in 2021 Gashi visited then acting Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu without being invited, in an attempt to justify an ongoing corruption investigation involving an official.

Gashi has claimed that recent articles published by BIRN in Kosovo contained “unfounded allegations that harmed my professional integrity and created a false public perception.”