Only 3 persons had keys to Dehar's samples” Haxhiu says those responsible are inside the Institute

Kosovo Government Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu has said that only 3 people had the keys to the site, where Astrit Dehar's missing samples were preserved at the Toxicology Laboratory at the Institute of Legal Medicine. She has said it is very easy to find those involved in this action.

She, speaking at T7, said there is a specific protocol on how samples are stored inside the lab.

We've realized that only 3 people have the keys to the place where the samples are stored. So there's a protocol on how the samples are stored, so with a will from the prosecution, one can find the persons responsible”, the minister declared.

She has said there is no possibility that someone outside the institute has performed this move.

There are only three people who had keys, so it's very easy to verify who's responsible. There's no way someone outside the institute will do that. Also, I think the person who did this work was not alone, but if it was organized”, she has declared further.

Haxhiu has shown how he realized Dehar's samples were gone. She said she couldn't believe this had happened.

On December 7, 2022, I've been notified by the director of the Toxicology lab, which has disappeared from Dehar's samples. In my question of how this happened, she pointed out that samples disappeared when old refrigerators were changed to new refrigerators. When they verified it according to code, they realized it was the Astrit Deharit” samples, she declared.

Haxhiu has said that 15 testes of blood have disappeared, a urinary test and a glucose test.

The “is currently understood to be missing, because when it happened it is not known”, it added.

She said she had already notified prosecutor Besim Kelmendi.

Because it's a serious act, it's a criminal offense”, she stressed.

Hadziu said that after the disappearance of samples, he met responsible people the next day.

The minister has also commented on the moral resignation of former Deputy Director of the Legal Medicine Institute Naim Uka on November 9th, 2022.

He quit, but like Mr. Naim Uka would not resign, I would have fired him. That's for sure. He said I don't know, I don't know, but what do you know?

According to the minister, the disappearance of Dehar's samples is an attack on the government, its minutes and itself.

“I do not yield to these criminal acts”, she has declared.

Vetevendosje Movement activist Astrit Dehari was found dead in Prizren's prison cell in November 2016, where he was being detained.