Kosovo Court Jails Kelmendi For Drugs Running

A court in Kosovo on Thursday found Naser Kelmendi guilty of the "unauthorised possession with intent to distribute, sell and/or export/import dangerous narcotic drugs" and jailed him for six years.

The Basic Court in Pristina found Kelmendi not guilty of the murder of Ramiz Delacic, however, or of organised crime and other charges related to narcotics.

The court also decided that the time he spent in custody, from May 2013 to June 2017, will be deducted from Kelmendi's sentence.

Kelmendi's trial began in January 2015, when he was charged with aggravated murder, two counts of organised crime and six counts of the sale and production of drugs in various capacities, which include managing and overseeing a narcotics ring.

During the trial, witnesses spoke of Kelmendi's alleged connections to other criminals, tycoons and politicians across the region, including the Bosnian media mogul and politician Fahrudin Radoncic, who denied involvement in the case.

The highest-profile charge concerned the 2007 murder of Ramiz Delalic, a Bosnian former warlord.

"Delalic had given law-enforcement agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina extensive information about the drug-trafficking operations of Naser Kelmendi.

"Delalic was also trying to establish his own trafficking operations in Bosnia, which was perceived by Kelmendi as a threat to his criminal organisation," Andrew Hughes, the EULEX prosecutor when the trial began in 2015, said.

On Wednesday, however, as the trial moved to a close, Kelmendi said that "the entire process has been fabricated".

In relation to the accusation of murdering Delalic, Kelmendi said he had been "a victim of mounting from Bosnia - with the help of the prosecution".

During the trial, a protected...