7 hours agoThe restaurant owner's criminal record on Suhareka robbery
Periskopi(a year ago)
(a year ago)In September 2023, Besart Istrefi, a restaurant owner in the village of Milosevo in Obilic, vowed to bring about 100 employees from third world countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal to Kosovo. In a conversation with a TV reporter at the time, Istrefi said that he had already signed a contract for [...]
In a conversation with a TV journalist at the time, Istrefi said he had only signed a contract to transfer 100 employees from Bangladesh and Nepal.
It was claimed that the contract would go into effect by November 2023.
This television report presented him as the owner of a restaurant that had found solutions for the absence of workers in the country by replacing them with employees from distant Asian countries.
“E Kena opens an employment office for bringing in workers from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal to replace the space of the workers we have. In November we have a contract of 100 employees”, he was declared on a television story published on T7 on September 3rd, 2023.
Workers don't know if they ever showed up that month. Not in the next few months either.
But in November 2023 the name of the restaurant owner, who vowed to bring foreign workers, emerged as involved in one of Kosovo's largest ever robberies.
Bessart Istrefi allegedly participated in the armed robbery at a jewelry storeman in the town of Suhareka on 23 November 2023.
The scene was terrible. Four robbers entered armed at the silver store “diakos 2” in the center of Suhareka. One of them, equipped with long arms, kept watch in front of the bar door until the other three filled the bags with gold ornaments inside.
During the robbery, the four suspects opened fire to a police unit at the Suhareka Police Station. A policeman was wounded on foot by the fire exchanged between the parties.
After a collision with the police patrol, the robbers managed to escape with over three kilograms of gold ornaments. The universities, considered to be worth over 200 thousand euros, were sent to Pristina.
The bearer of ornaments was Trim Barak, the owner of a jewelry store in the capital. Barak is charged with four suspected robbers Korab Gashi, Bujar Basha, Leutrim Cacol and Besart Istreff for the robbery.
Barak is accused of gunkeeping in this case until a separate process of buying items gained from committing criminal acts is ongoing.
In the charge of four suspected robbers, Barak, the goldsmith has confessed that he has been known for years with Besart Istreff. He said that with the owner of the restaurant in Milosevo he met for almost every day.
Barak said that before Istreff had met on the day of the robbery.
“ [Baraku] has declared that as far as Besart is concerned, he has met with him very often on a daily basis, with Leutrim Calcolin not met, with Korab Gashi's Dukagjin has not met. He remembers that with Korab Gashi he has not met for a possible 1 week to 10 days before the robbery, even Bujar Basha has not met”, the Pristina Prosecutor's Act, which presupposed Barak's testimony.
Barak said that with Besart Istreff, there is a 5-6-year-old society, “he has known through the family restaurant that he manages in Milosevo.
“From September of last year, they have drawn closer and were aiming to open a business together in Pristina, near Barak's bar called Pethta Bux”, the prosecution reportedly published by Insander.
Bessart Istrefi does not appear to be just a robbery suspect and a businessman with plans to solve the work force problem, as was presented in the 2023 TV story on T7 television.
Istreff is a person known for law enforcement. He's a judge for a serious murder that happened at his family's restaurant in Milosevo.
He, along with his father, Besim Istrefi, was first tried for “severe murder” and then for “suicide” following the re-qualification of the criminal act by the Prosecutor. Both were accused of a gun incident where Lutfi Saraqi and Nazim Grovall were left dead.
The trial had begun in 2015 and lasted six years. Until 2021.
Initially, a first - degree court had found father and son guilty, the faith of Bessart Istreff, of murder and gym weapons. The first Act of the Foundation, pronounced in 2018, had served them a seven-year sentence of Istref's imprisonment and a five-year sentence of Bessart Istref.
Apel had retriald the matter in 2019.
Since the retrial had been retriald twice. The hearings had repeatedly failed for various reasons, the Law of Justice reported in 2021.
In the retrial, Bessart Istrefi's faith had been declared innocent of murder. The trial had taken a firm form on March 9, 2021, after the court had concluded that they did this work in necessary defense.
By indictment, in restaurant “Shega” in Milosevo, Obilik, on May 2, 2014, after an instant disagreement had killed Nazim Grevala and Lutfi Saraci while heavily injured owner Besim Istrefi and his son, Besart Istrefi.
The indictment says that the whole event had begun when waitresses had begun preparing for the closure of the bar, in which defendant Jeton Saraci had been at the table with Adem Dautaj and now the late Lutfi Saraci and Nazim Grovalla.
For this, according to the indictment, Saraci had reacted and had begun arguing with him with Bessart Istreff, where they had later pulled their guns and pointed at each other. After the call from his son, Besim Istrefi had also come to the restaurant, who had pointed his gun at them, where he had then shot nine times in the direction of now the late Lutfi Saraci and Nazim Gervala.
In those moments, says the indictment, an exchange of gunfire from both sides had begun, with deadly wounds being sustained by the late Lutfi Saraci and Nazim Gervala, while Besim and Bessart Istrefi were now severely injured. /Periscope/
