Kosovo Police Arrest Four Officials for Organize Crime

Опубликовано: 06 Март 2012

Kosovo police arrested four senior municipal officials Tuesday on suspicion of organized crime.

Police say that three municipal directors and a municipal assembly member in the northern region of Vushtrri, all from Kosovo’s dominant Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), are suspected of abuse of office.

“The four are suspected of the criminal offences of illegal expropriation of municipal property, abusing their official positions or authorizations, influencing bids and organized crime,” Kosovo Police spokesperson Brahim Sadriu told Balkan Insight.

He said that concurrently with the arrests, the police’s Special Anti-Corruption Task Force raided the officials’ offices, confiscating documents relevant to the investigation.

Police also conducted raids on private property in Vushtrri and seized a revolver, ammunition, documents and a laptop computer, according to Sadriu.

Kosovo, the world’s second newest country, is still struggling to establish rule of law and is considered the most corrupt region of the former Yugoslavia.  It ranked 112th in Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, alongside Moldova, Egypt, Senegal and Algeria.