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| Gjilan / Gnjilane Prison rented from Denmark |
The Danish Minister of Justice says that renting 300 prison cells in Kosovo would solve his country's worrying issue of prison overcrowding.
Nick Haekkerup signed an agreement with his Kosovo Albanian counterpart, Albulena Haxhiu, the first step before the agreement is to be signed early next year and then ratified by the two countries' parliaments.
The Ministry of Justice says that the small Balkan country will be paid 210 million euros by Denmark for a 10-year agreement, which will finance the Kosovo justice system and renewable energy projects.
"The goal is that the prisoners who will serve their sentences in Kosovo will be prisoners who have been expelled from the court in Denmark. And that will be a point we will talk about. It has been rumored that there will be transfers but not convicted of terror or war crimes. We will talk about many other issues as well", said Nick Haekkerup, Minister of Justice in Denmark.
Kosovo non-profit organizations monitoring the system express concern that the transfer of about 200 prisoners from Gjilan prison to open the way for Danish prisoners would overcrowd other prisons.
Kosovo's prison system has a capacity of up to 2500, of which about 700-800 are still free.
Denmark plans to shelter deported prisoners in Kosovo.
A Danish and an Albanian guard will run the new facility with 300 cells.