A six-member group from Kosovo was sentenced today by the Pristina Basic Court to 25 years and 9 months in prison for planning terrorist attacks on KFOR, a Serbian Orthodox Church, and clubs in Kosovo, Pristina-based Kallxo reported.
The group was sentenced to 25 years and 9 months in total. Bujar Behrami, also known as ‘Abu Musab El-Albani’, was sentenced to 10 years, Resim Kastrati, known as „Pc Habibi“, to four years, Gramos Shabani to seven, Leutrim Musliu was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, Albert Ademaj to a year and 6 months, while Shabani’s wife, Edona Haliti received a year-long prison sentence. The court also ordered the confiscation of 9,000 EUR from Bujar Behrami, as well as the confiscation of Leutrim Musliu’s firearm, an automatic rifle and 40 bullets.
Bujar Behrami and Resim Kastrati were accused of preparing terrorist attacks in Kosovo from December 2017 to June 29, 2018. They targeted clubs, „Cambodia“ and „Insomnia“, in Gracanica, as well as the Orthodox church, St. Demetrius, in North Mitrovica.
According to allegations presented in the Special Prosecution case, a suicide bomb attack on a KFOR vehicle was also in the plan – a crime Edona Haliti was accused of. Haliti’s husband Gramos Shabani, on the other hand, was accused of participating in terrorist attacks in Belgium.
Bujar Behrami was also accused of trying to form a group called „Assistance to the Islamic State in the Land of Eagles.“ The group was supposed to plan terrorist attacks, operating in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.
The indictment also adds that the task of delivering weapons, explosives and finding persons to wear the vests with explosives was assigned to Resim Kastrati.
Kastrati was paid approximately 9,000 EUR through Money Gram and Western Union banks for providing explosives and firearms – the indictment alleges.
Two more defendants, Albert Ademaj and Leutrim Musliu, were sentenced for knowing that the accused Bujar Behrami and Resim Kastrati, with whom they had been in constant contact, had been preparing terrorist attacks in Kosovo and for failing to report their criminal activities.
A six-member terrorist group was indicted last October, after more than a six month-long investigation by the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office. Lajmi reported at the time that according to last year’s investigation and Behrami’s confession, their original plan was to attack the Israeli football team in Shkodra during a game back in November 2016, which was thwarted by the arrest of 19 people. The group was affiliated with Lavdrim Muhaxheri.
Since the plan was thwarted, the following year, they decided to attack Orthodox buildings. The initial date for the attack was Christmas, however, that plan failed, prompting them to choose a second date – Vidovdan, a plan which was also, fortunately, thwarted.
Behrami was in constant contact with the ‘most famous’ ISIS fighters from Kosovo – Lavdrim Muhaxheri and Ridvan Aqifi until their assassination in 2017.
„My idea was to attack the Orthodox buildings on their Christmas. Initially, there were no financial resources or people to do anything. I did some research on the Internet about where their churches are located and then I researched poison gases and explosives“ – Behrami’s statement from the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office indictment reads.
Read about terrorist threats on our page ISIS and Kosovo.
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