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Kosovo ex-minister faces new graft charges

20 February 2014, 22:15 CET
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Kosovo ex-minister faces new graft charges

Fatmir Limaj - Photo Courtesy of the ICTY

(PRISTINA) - A former Kosovo transport minister has been charged with organised crime and corruption in the second such indictment against him, the European Union's EULEX mission said Thursday.

EULEX, the EU's rule of law mission in Kosovo, has charged ex-minister and current lawmaker Fatmir Limaj and three other defendants with "manipulating tender procedures, giving and receiving bribes and obstructing evidence related to two tenders" launched by the transport ministry in 2008, EULEX spokesman Blerim Krasniqi told AFP.

The alleged crimes were committed between 2008 and 2010, when Limaj held the portfolio, and cost Kosovo about 900,000 euros ($1.2 million), Krasniqi said.

This is the second corruption indictment against Limaj. In 2012, he was charged with manipulating tender procedures and giving and receiving bribes.

Limaj, a top ethnic Albanian guerrilla commander turned politician, and six other defendants denied all charges against them at the start of their trial last year.

During the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict Limaj was a commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought the security forces loyal to then Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

After the war Limaj helped found Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).

In 2003, he was charged with war crimes by a United Nations tribunal in The Hague, but the court acquitted him after a trial that lasted four years.

He was also one of 10 suspects in a high-profile war crimes case before an EU court in Kosovo. The court acquitted him last September, but the prosecution has appealed the ruling.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Shortly afterwards, the EU launched its biggest-ever civilian mission to help local authorities strengthen the rule of law.

EULEX's judges and prosecutors tackle all high-profile cases that the local judiciary is deemed unable to handle due to their sensitivity.


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