Kosovo Police authorities have made it clear that former members from the Serb community who withdrew from duty at the end of 2022 will not be able to return to service. This stance was reinforced by the deputy director of the Regional Directorate of North Mitrovica, Veton Elshani, in a statement to KosovaPress.
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According to him, the resignation process is considered administratively completed, after the General Directorate officially approved them. Elshani clarified that the individuals in question no longer hold the status of police officers.
“As soon as the relevant decision is delivered to them, they cease to be part of the Kosovo Police,” he emphasized. KosovaPress also sought comment from the General Directorate but received no response by the publication deadline.
The wave of departures at the end of 2022 broadly affected Kosovo institutions. In addition to police officers, the resignations included ten prosecutors, a considerable number of judges, and 22 court administration staff from the Serb community.
Four years after these events, a group of Serb judges and prosecutors have expressed the desire to be reappointed to their previous positions, claiming that their resignations were not handled properly. However, their efforts have met with institutional rejection.
On 20 July 2026, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council rejected the requests for the return of former Serb prosecutors and their staff. The next day, Acting President Albulena Haxhiu signed decrees formalizing the dismissal of seven prosecutors from this community.
The KPC reported receiving about 20 emails from former Serb prosecutors and support staff seeking reinstatement. Meanwhile, the Kosovo Judicial Council has not provided official figures on the number of similar requests from judges.
The debate on this topic also took place at a conference in North Mitrovica on 16 July, organized by the Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC). Andrea Lako, head of the Justice Section at UNMIK, noted that there are indications of a possible return of judges, underlining the importance of their services to the community.
In a similar vein of optimism, ACDC director Dushan Radakovic predicted their return to offices as early as 1 September of this year. Lawyer Shyqyri Syla, former chief prosecutor in Mitrovica, supported this perspective, arguing that their reintegration would serve the functioning of justice and the inclusion of Serbs, while describing the 2022 departure as a political action led by the Serbian List and Belgrade.
Despite these voices, lawyer Lubomir Pantovic expressed skepticism about the possibility of return, although he added that he would welcome such a development. Meanwhile, Gëzim Shala from the Kosovo Institute for Justice noted that the resignations of judges and prosecutors were not approved within the timeframe they were submitted, creating a legal window for reinstatement. He insisted that the issue should not become part of the Brussels dialogue but be handled exclusively by the Kosovo Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils.
The mass withdrawal of Serbs from institutions was announced on 5 November 2022 during a meeting called by the Serbian List in the north of Mitrovica, in response to the Kosovo government’s policy on illegal license plates. Their integration, which had begun years earlier as a result of the Brussels agreements, thus took a sharp regressive turn.
