PRISTINA -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama is suing his Kosovar counterpart for alleged defamation over comments concerning a land swap between Kosovo and Serbia.
Rama filed the lawsuit for unspecified damages in the Basic Court in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, against outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, a spokesman for the court confirmed to RFE/RL on January 16.
The lawsuit alleges Haradinaj's “defamatory” statements against Rama "harmed the honor, reputation, and dignity of the plaintiff," according to the Oath Of Justice, the website of the Kosovo Institute of Justice.
It said the comments, made in October in a series of interviews, were related to the stalled process of normalizing Kosovo-Serbia relations.
Reacting to media reports about the legal case, Haradinaj late on January 15 rejected the lawsuit as “completely unfounded.”
“I will prepare a response to the lawsuit within the legal deadlines!” he wrote in a Facebook post.
“This is just a political diversion aimed at stimulating a media spectacle to avoid his responsibilities,” he said.
Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence in 2008 in a move rejected by Belgrade.
