Police in search of nearly 300 people for theft, murder, terrorism

Currently there are 288 people looking for Kosovo Police, has told Radio Free Europe, director of the Directorate for International Co-operation in the Law Implementation Field (ILECU), Veton Elshani. According to him, only this month has police arrested three people, suspected of robbery, murder and acts linked to terrorism.

However, in the Kosovo Police Media Office, they have not provided much details about the number of people who are at large and about what they allegedly did.

Nor has it been clarified regarding the suspicions in which countries, these countries, according to information from the law - enforcement agencies.

Daut Hoxha, spokesman at the Kosovo Police, said they have good co-operation with other countries, as well as to implement arrest warrants for wanted persons.

Kosovo's “Police through interilateral co-operation carry out warrants for wanted persons, whether at the level of country or even the implementation of arrest warrants for other persons, required by authorities from other countries”, Hoxha said.

For Plator Avdiu from the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (QKSS), this large number of wanted persons pose problems for the Kosovo Police, when it is known that Kosovo is still not part of the International Police Organisation (INTERPOL).

The Kosovo Police's “for Kosovo Police has been very problematic, given that there is no international police co-operation with INTERPOL, but also with other countries, because the Kosovo Police are uncoherent, because there is no access to the INTERPOL database, and this also causes major problems to”, Avdiu said.

According to him, the only success of the Kosovo Police on the international level is co-operation with the European Police Agency (EUROPOL).

This has enabled the Kosovo Police in part to have successes in some of the cases, whether in arresting persons suspected of terrorism or various immigrant trafficking groups, where the Kosovo Police have fortunately been part of some EUROPOL shares”, Avdiu said.

On the official Kosovo Police website, the photos of the fugitives, which many of them have been staying there for years.

Some who still remain unident, but seen in photos published by police, continue to be sought as suspects concerning the Kosovo magazine 2.0, where the promotion of the latter was prevented -- the event that happened on December 14, 2012 at the Red Hall, the Palace of Culture, Youth and Sports in Pristina.

On November 20th of last year, Kosovo had failed to become an INTERPOL member state, until this year it has applied again to membership in this important organisation.