New Probe Into Kosovo Activist’s Death Hears Conflicting Testimonies

Former Prizren police director Nexhmi Krasniqi admitted during prosecution questioning on Thursday that his claims that the former Vetevendosje activist Astrit Dehari - who died in Prizren prison in 2016 - had used medication before his death, had come from the prison director at the time, Destan Zogaj.

He was questioned by the prosecution as a witness in a resumed investigation of the case, which was re-started in October 2019 after a report from the Lausanne Institute of Forensic Medicine in Switzerland declined to rule out the possibility that Dehari was killed.

The prosecution has said it will be interviewing 15 people as witnesses. While the authorities have claimed that Dehari committed suicide in jail, members of his family have continued to claim he was killed in the jail due to his political activism.

Krasniqi told BIRN journalist Petrit Kryeziu at the time of Dehari's death that Dehari had taken some medication and had fallen into a coma, and then died on the way to hospital. Citing "information from the Director of the Detention Centre in Prizren, the victim took some pills and fell into a coma. On the way to the emergency clinic, he passed away", Krasniqi said.

Dehari family lawyer Tome Gashi told BIRN that Krasniqi had said during questioning on Thursday that his statement had been based on information obtained from former Prizren jail director Destan Zogaj - and that Krasniqi had then given this information to former journalist Kryeziu.

Gashi also told BIRN after the hearing that Zogaj had never declared that he had given the information that Dehari had died as a result of an overdose of medication. "It is important that Zogaj never said this. He was questioned twice, the last time two weeks ago, but has not stated this...