Grabovci and Lushtaku dinner with INTERPOL drug wanted

Adem Grabovci and Sami Lushtaku spent Monday night on March 5th at a restaurant in Gjakova. They were sitting close to each other, but between the two former senior state officials was sitting a person wanted by INTERPOL for organised crime.

Izet Beqiri, who was sitting between Grabovci and Lushtak at dinner in Gjakova, is on INTERPOL's list and is wanted by Italian authorities and the International Drug Trafficking Police, Isader reports.

The former head of the PDK Parliamentary Group and the former head of the Skyright municipality and Izet Beqiri were invited to dine in Gjakova from Astrit Haraqija.

Based on documents of Italian authorities provided by Insider, Izet Beqiri had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Italy for drug trafficking. An international warrant had been issued for him, but Italian authorities had failed to seize him.

Although it was in search of INTERPOL, Beqiri had managed to obtain a visa just from the Italian Embassy in Pristina. As Isander had reported in May 2016, Italian State representatives in Pristina had been able to do so.

For this and several other cases, the European Union for State of Law (EULEX) and the Kosovo Border Police Unit for Investigation had launched an investigation into Beqiri and a group allegedly led by Uke Rugova, the main suspect of involvement in illegal visa trade activity.

In May 2016, the prosecutor EULEX, Allen Casick, filed an indictment against Beqiri, Rugova and 19 other people for organised crime in connection with the work of smuggling with migrants, writes Insander.

Among the 19 people charged in the case is former Culture Minister Astrit Haraqi, who gathered Grabovci, Lushtak and Beqiri together.

Meanwhile, during a Beqiri interview in May 2014, EULEX investigators had faced him with a document found at his home during the February 5, 2014, raid.

In a drawer in the bedroom cabinet, Beqiri kept a document. It was in a blue wrapping. According to investigators, that document was a request to the Justice Ministry. This required the minister to withdraw the international arrest warrant issued through Interpol.

Also last year, Insander had published phone wiretapping and e-mails from Uke Rugova's alleged group, which display their illegal visa trade activity. These tapes include Izet Beqiri.