Category: News and Events

The families Rexhepi and Avdiu from the village Mikushnicë, in Skenderaj, have been fighting each other for 13 years now. The violence between these two families still continues and even the state institution and the blood feud mediators could not stop it.

Moreover, both of the families are tired of fighting one another and now are seeking peace through state institution and even from the traditional way of problem solving, but until now none of the alternatives have had any good results.

In 2001, Agim Rexhepi was the neighborhood representative for the allocation of aid in the Mikushnica village. He told Justice in Kosovo that the fight with Avdijaj started after he had a conflict with one of the members of Avdiu family.

“Avni hit me with an iron rod. Some men that were present during our fight became our mediators. I’ve gotten serious injuries during this conflict and from that moment there was no tranquility between our families. Many fights happened between our family member and we cannot stop it anymore,” said Agim Rexhepi.

In 2013 these two families had two additional conflicts. The first one was when one of the Rexhepi family members, a seventeen-year-old boy, was attacked on his way to school by one of the Avdiu family members. His attacker works as a police officer in the Kosovo Police. The police officer injured the young boy by hitting him in the leg and also pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him, family members say.

The Kosovo Police spokesperson in Mitrovica, Avni Zaiti, told Justice in Kosovo that they have received reports of this violence, but some of them have passed the statute of limitations and others could not be followed up on due to lack of evidence.

The second conflict in 2013, happened on May 16th. The conflict was caused by the reports against Mehdi Avdiu that the Rexhepi family submitted to the Kosovo Police .

Police officer Mehdi Avdiu sought to again harass the young man, Ekrem Rexhepi, when he was returning home from school. However, Ekrem hit Mehdi and almost killed him. the prosecution suspects that the boy was helped by his cousins, but Ekrem says it was only him that attacked Mehdi Avdiu.

According to the prosecutor Vahide Badivuku, Ekrem Rexhepi was released after three months because he is still a minor, but this does not mean that he will not be ultimately sentenced. Ekrem’s cousins, Milaim, Arton, and Pajtim Rexhepi, are being held in jail because they are adults. Pajtim Rexhepi was working the day of the incident, and his family has told that to the police, but he is still being held.

The former general director of Kosovo Police, Behar Selimi, in cooperation with the judo trainer of Kosovo Police in Vushtrri, Shain Behrami, tried to get the two families to reconcile but they failed.

Murat Bislimi also made an effort to reconcile, but he said that as time passed their hostility became even worse. He said that the old customs should not be forgotten but the law should always come first.

 

In 2011, the Kosovo Government banned the gravel extraction from domestic rivers. The November 2nd, 2013 decision stated that “the law will be valid for three years from the day that law is first implemented.”

The decision, signed by the Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, assigned the Commission for Mines and Minerals, the Kosovo Police, and other institutions to implement and enforce this law.

In 2013 the owner of company “Elezaj”, Bedri Elezaj from Klina, told Justice in Kosovo that some officials asked him to give them money in order to help him.

Part of Mr. Elezaj’s company was closed at the end of 2011 because of the government’s decision. Mr. Elezaj started to build a concrete mixer near his company, but in order to put the concrete mixer in function he needed the permission from the Commission for Mines and Minerals.

Mr. Elezaj was warned by the inspectors that he was not allowed to put the concrete mixer in function if he exploits grit illegally. He said that the inspectors never found him exploiting grit, but the inspectors flattered him and told him to sign a document which he did not understand.

In addition, Mr. Elezaj realized too late what he signed and called the head inspector Nuredin Bislimi who told Mr. Elezaj that the fee can be from 5 thousand to 50 thousand euros and that he should be careful.

Meanwhile Elezaj decided to notify the police about this case because he was tired of being pressured.
Two days after the meeting, the head inspector Bislimi and the inspector Lulzim Çitaku visit the “Elezaj” company. Mr. Elezaj, in cooperation with Kosovo Police, gave Nuredin Bislimii 1,000 euros. The police immediately arrested the head inspector Bislimi and the inspector Citaku for the penal act of bribe taking.

In addition, evidence from Mr. Elezaj are being used as the main proof against two inspectors. The case prosecutor of this case, Shpresa Gashi, told Justice in Kosovo that she made an agreement with Nuredin Bislimi. Mr. Bislimi pleaded guilty therefore he will receive a lower punishment of 6 months – 1 year in prison.

The lawyer of Nuredin Bislimi, Bajram Tmava, said that her client admitted guilt for bribe taking and during the whole process he was defended in silence.

The other inspector, Lulzim Citaku, pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he did not know that his supervisor was asking for bribe. This was confirmed by Citaku’s lawyer, Mahmut Halimi; whereas the prosecutor Gashi who dealt with this case said that according to the evidence, Citaku knew about the bribe. She said that the prosecution is also investigating other inspectors who took bribes.

As usual, Justice in Kosovo also broadcast the clips recorded in cooperation with the Kosovo Police. “Security in Traffic” was the action of the police in this clip. A Kosovo Police officer talked about the number of accidents: 32 accidents occurred during 2013 and 37 people died in these accidents.

The number of accidents is higher during winter; therefore the Kosovo Police conducted an operation to ensure that all citizens have winter equipment for their vehicle. During the clip, the Kosovo Police stopped a few vehicles that were speeding and some that did not have winter equipment for their vehicle.

A two floor building on the road Hamez Jashari in Ferizaj was demolished by the municipality authorities in 2009. The municipality expanded the road and one year later they made an agreement with the owner of the building to compensate him by giving him three shops downtown.

The demolished venue was owned by Naser Mustafa who earned approximately 1,000 euros per month renting the venue. Three years have passed and Naser Mustafa was never compensated. The reason that the municipality did not compensate Naser Mustafa was that the former mayor of Ferizaj, Bajrush Xhemajli, released an announcement on the 14th of January, 2010 in which he cancelled the agreement with Naser Mustafa.

Naser Mustafa alerted the authorities about the cancellation of this agreement. The prosecution opened an investigation but closed it.
The case prosecutor, Florije Salihu-Shamolli, said that the investigation may start again because the Mustafa has offered new evidence.

“Meanwhile the damaged party presented an additional document (the decision of the former mayor Xhemajli). We consider that it is necessary to collect new evidence, therefore we have authorized the investigative unit for economic crimes,” declared the prosecutor Salihu- Shamolli.

Justice in Kosovo contacted the former mayor of Ferizaj, Bajrush Xhemajli, and he declared that at that time many buildings were demolished and he did not remember this case.

“To be honest, many buildings were demolished during my mandate and I do not remember this case. The Urbanism Director, Qazime Vata, is the most relevant person to talk about this because he always consulted here before taking a decision about city planning,” said Bajrush Xhemajli.

The legal official, Jahir Zuka, was authorized by the mayor Xhemajli to sign the agreement for the property compensation with the citizen Naser Mustafa.

“I was the authorized by the mayor Xhemajli and I signed the agreement. I do not know why this case was not finished. The most relevant person to talk to about this is the urbanism director,” said the legal official, Jahir Zuka.

However, the urbanism director Qazime Vata said that the mayor is the one that makes the final decision regarding compensation.
“We realized that we cannot find any solution at the Ferizaj Municipality, so we decided to contact the judicial authorities,” said Fatmir Bajraktari, the lawyer of Naser Mustafa.

In November, 2013, Fatmir Bajraktari pressed charges against the Administrative Issues Department in order for the citizen Mustafa to be compensated.
The Public Lawyer of Ferizaj said that someone should take responsibility for this case.

“I don’t know why everyone refuses to talk about this case, but it is necessary to take measures. The ones that breached the law will respond for these actions and I am saying this in the name of the mayor Agim Aliu because I am authorized to say this,” said the municipality lawyer Adem Aliu.

The damaged party, Mustafa, said that “the agreement must be kept and I should be granted with three venues downtown. If they do not like the agreement then they should return my property in the initial state. I have lost a profit of 40,000 euros since the demolishment of the building.”

Three persons who claimed they were offered money to vote for the Serbian Civic Initiative (GIS) were interviewed by the program. The interviewees wanted to remain anonymous because of legal reasons.

“People from GIS offered us 20,000 Dinars and required us to give them our ID. They also asked us how many members of the family we had and our cell phone numbers,” said person A.

The approximate version also includes person B, a witness from the municipality of Partesh. He claimed that he was offered 5,000 Dinars in four installments. Whereas the other witness said he saw some citizens of Partesh and Ranillug taking money for selling their vote.
“Some relatives of mine that do not have a car asked me to drive them to receive the money. When we went there many people were taking the money for their votes,” said person C.

The three witnesses told Justice in Kosovo that the case was reported to the police, but they complain that the police did not take any measures.
The Kosovo Police admitted that they received the complaints of these three citizens, but they also claimed the witnesses did not give the police exact information where these legal violations happened and who the persons involved were.

“The prosecutor asked them to give more specific information such as who was involved in the violation and where. They could not provide us this information, therefore we could not take measures,” said Shaban Azizi.

The prosecutor, Agron Uka, was present on the day this case was reported. He told Justice in Kosovo that during the first interview, the witnesses did not give us enough information to initiate an investigation. Uka said that he visited the place together with the witnesses but they were not able to give him names or other basic information.

Besides the accusation of buying and selling votes, there were also other problems in Partesh.
The voting center in Pasjan was destroyed on December 1. The director of security in the Municipality of Partesh, Miodrag Guzvic (SLS) was arrested in the case.

The police said that the arrest of the director of security in the Municipality of Partesh was based on facts. However, Guzvic’s colleague Goran Jancic, said that this could be a mistake made by the prosecution.

However, Zoran Nikolic, brother of the candidate for Mayor, Dragan Nikolic, who is also part of this party said that the incident started after a phone call where the SLS militants found out about the results and they headed to the polling station.
However, after the polling center in Pasjan was destroyed, CEC was obliged to repeat the elections for three polling stations; these elections will be held on December 15th, 2013.

Moreover, one cameraman who was reporting for Puls TV was threatened and attacked by the people who destroyed the polling center. The director of Puls TV, Nenad Milenkovic, said that his cameraman was threatened and attacked. The person who attacked the cameraman asked him to destroy the material that he had recorded.

Besides the injuries of the cameraman, Marko Stankovic, Puls Tv also suffered a damage of 8,000 euros from the attackers.
Kosovo Police said that they have immediately pressed charges against five persons who are suspected to have been involved in this incident.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second program is mainly about domestic drug users and the amount of drugs consumed in Kosovo and also the destruction of drugs.

Based on the analysis of the Kosovo Police, there are around 3,000 heroin users in Kosovo. 75 percent of people that use heroin did not start using it in Kosovo; they started consuming heroin while they were living abroad, police said. The number of cocaine, marijuana, and other drug users is increasing and is becoming problematic.

It is estimated that a heroin addict uses 1 gram of heroin per day and 365 grams per year total. When the amount of 365 kilograms is multiplied with the number of consumers (3,000) it is estimated that approximately 1,000 kg of heroin is consumed in Kosovo per year. 1,000 kilograms of heroin is equal to 16 million euros.

Prishtina is the city where the most drugs are consumed. The proof of drug consumption in Prishtina is the amount of remaining drugs left in the abandoned houses in Prishtina.

Justice in Kosovo together with the Kosovo Police recorded many abandoned houses. Almost all of them were full of needles and syringes.

During the program, the police stopped random cars in order to see if they were carrying drugs. The cars stopped by the police, mainly driven by young men, possessed marijuana.
As soon as the drivers saw the police, they tried to hide their drugs.

Finally, according to the Kosovo Police, drugs are also consumed and hidden in the school yards. Police say that consuming drugs near schools is very dangerous because kids sometimes play with the needles and the syringes left by drug users.

 

The program shows exclusive footage on how the police has destroyed the trafficking networks of heroin, cocaine, and marihuana, which are thought to have brought approximately 300 kilograms of drugs into the country.

Kosovo is a transit stop for many drugs on their way to EU countries. Justice in Kosovo team has cooperated with the Kosovo Police for nine months in order to see the activities of the Kosovo Police anti-drug unit.

Kosovo Police data shows that the heroin trafficking starts in Afghanistan, then continues through Turkey and Kosovo and ends up in EU countries. Marijuana is brought from Albania to Kosovo and then continues on to EU countries.
The analysis of the Kosovo Police shows that a portion of drugs remains in Kosovo and it is consumed by domestic (Kosovo) drug users.

During the first six months of the cooperation with Justice in Kosovo, Kosovo Police confiscated 15 kg of heroin, 295 kg of marijuana, 3.5 kg of cocaine, 264 cannabis plants, 26 kg of ecstasy, and 34 grams of other drugs.

In addition, there is an exclusive footage of high-risk police operations conducted while confiscating 120 kilograms of marijuana in Peja, seven kilograms of heroin in the village Shkabaj, 12 kilograms of marijuana in Gjakova, and five kilograms of heroin in Ferizaj.

One of the most important operations was during September 2013 when Kosovo Police confiscated approximately 7 kilograms of heroin.

According to police information, the heroin came from Turkey to the village Shkabaj, near Prishtina. The drug was mixed with other drugs and packaged in the village Shkabaj.
The drug dealers were headed to Albania, but Kosovo Police stopped them near Prishtina. The drugs and the vehicles were confiscated immediately.

There were many operations similar to this one. During the clip, the audience had the chance to see many of the places where drugs are consumed.
Moreover, the program explored the ways of hiding narcotics and the international connections of the trafficking networks that operate in Kosovo.

From the beginning of June, the Special Prosecution in Kosovo will be directed by local prosecutors under an almost identical organization.

The special prosecution will continue to have prosecutors from EULEX for at least the next two years.

They will continue to follow and investigate the cases already submitted.

The special prosecution deals with the most difficult cases. With a team of only 12 prosecutors, it is not possible to handle such a caseload over a long period of time.

The 14 departing international prosecutors should be replaced with local personnel in order to retain the same number of prosecutors.

Head prosecutor Sevdije Morina said there are five prosecutors with experience that are ready to work on sensitive cases such as war crimes.

Prosecutors sare are investigating 17 war crime cases, Morina said.

The greatest difficulty faced on these cases is that a long time has passed and they are consequently harder to investigate, Morina said.

War criminals should have been prosecuted immediately after the war and international prosecutors should have taken official evidence. Unfortunately, most of the evidence was taken informally and witnesses are leaving the area in increasing numbers, Morina said.

Of almost equal importance is the task force unit of investigators specialized in sensitive cases of corruption. In this Special Prosecution, there are seven prosecutors, Morina said.”

“We have received many requests from the Basic Court to bring cases and are currently examining which fall under our jurisdiction according to law.

Additionally, we are currently working on 11 terrorism cases,” Morina said.

None of the local prosecutors are working any of the political murder cases but they are investigating narcotic trafficking, collaborating with foreign states such as Germany, Albania, etc.

Working conditions are relatively good for the prosecutors but they require more office space. There is no evidence of any safety concerns and only one prosecutor has requested protection because of his work on the war crime cases , Morina said.

 

 

 

 

Six Kosovo police officers in Mitrovica were accuse of misusing authority and taking bribes. 3 of them were fired even though they were found not guilty. The Internal Disciplinary Commission of Kosovo Police decided to fire them in June 2013 after two years of judicial process. Sergeant Naser Damati and police officers Kemajl Hoti and Halit Fazliu said they will sue their former employer.

Halit Fazliu was one of the six Kosovo Police officials that were accused by the basic prosecution in Mitrovica of misuse of authority and taking bribes. The other accused were Naser Damati, Avni Shyti, Nazmi Potërçoi, Besim Smajli, and Kemajl Hoti.

After the investigations were finished and after a judicial process of two years, the Basic Court of Mitrovica, led by the EULEX judges, announced the verdict on the February 15, 2013. Two of the police officials were found guilty and the rest were found not guilty and were immediately released.

Avni Shyti was sentenced to five months of probation, whereas his colleague Nazmi Potercoi was sentenced to 15 months in prison, also will be put on probation.
The same court found the other four officers not guilty. During the judicial process they were suspended from work and after they were found not guilty, they returned to their position as officials in Kosovo Police.

But Naser Damati, Kemajl Hoti, and Halit Fazliu were fired on July 24 after five months of work.
At that time when Damati was being accused, he received recognition for outstanding work against contraband and for good team management. Damati and his colleagues’ innocence was also confirmed by the European Mission.

“Naser Damati, Halit Fazliu, and Kemajl Hoti were found not guilty. We have no information about why they were fired from their workplace, but for us they are innocent,” said the spokesperson of EULEX, Blerim Krasniqi.

The three fired Kosovo Police officials submitted a complaint to the Kosovo Police General Director’s office, but say that they haven’t received any answer. They doubt that the Kosovo Police General Director will take their complaint into consideration.

Lawyer Behar Ejupi, who is preparing a charge against Kosovo Police for his client sergeant Damti, said that there was a breach in the decision made by the Disciplinary Commission. He explained for Justice in Kosovo that the investigator of the commission for the case, Damati, should have interviewed all the case witnesses. The Disciplinary Commission did not interview any of the witnesses; they just took the witnesses’ declarations from Kosovo Police.