Kosovo’s prime minister again refuses to testify at prosecutor’s office for a corruption case

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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Tuesday again refused to report to the Special Prosecutor’s Office that had summoned him as a witness in an alleged corruption case of state reserves.

Kurti, who was first summoned in December and refused, instead has said they can take his testimony at his office. He is not accused in the case but other officials are. Few details have been made publicly available.

The prime minister has said he considers the prosecutor’s request to be politically driven.

“It is using and abusing its freedom to fight the government, not crime and corruption. I have always been ready to testify,” Kurti told journalists.

The prosecutors’ governing body and chief prosecutor supported the request to summon Kurti and denounced his allegations of taking political sides, adding that his words “seriously damage the functioning of the democratic institutions.”

His Self-Determination Movement Party won the most seats in the Feb. 9 election but was left without a majority in parliament, forcing it to look for a partner to form the new government.

The incident comes as Kosovo’s ties with its norther neighbor, Serbia, remain tense. Normalization talks with Serbia, which the European Union has facilitated since 2011, have stalled, though they are key for the countries’ potential membership in the bloc.

Kosovo was a former Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists there. That left about 11,400 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, proclaimed in 2008.