Kosovo Guerrillas’ Gun-Runners Demand Political Prisoner Status

Krasniqi, then 25, and his older brother were stopped and arrested by police. Three months later, a court in Skopje sentenced them to three-and-a-half years in prison.

In 2015, Krasniqi applied for the status of political prisoner according to a benefits scheme that the Kosovo government offers to those who spent more than two months in jail on political charges between 1913 and 1999.

Krasniqi said that he experienced torture and even an attempt to murder him behind bars.

"All of Kosovo knows my case and there is no need for other evidence. The weapons [he tried to bring to Kosovo] were intended for war," he said.

But he, like many others, had his application rejected by the authorities because the law regulating the status of political prisoners doesn't include those convicted of illegal possession of weapons and arms trafficking for the cause of Kosovo's liberation from Belgrade's control.

More political prisoners than expected

Atom Krasniqi. Photo: BIRN.

In 2010, the Kosovo Assembly adopted a law setting out the rights of people who have been convicted and persecuted on political grounds. Four years later, the government established a commission to verify the status of former political prisoners.

Back in 2014, the government commission said that it expected to deal with around 5,000 people. But so far, 12,670 people have applied for the status.

Since 2014, more than 2,840 people have been verified as former political prisoners and a total of 49 million euros has been spent to compensate them.

The secretary of the Commission to Verify and Recognise Political Prisoners, Shefik Sadiku, told BIRN that the law has lot of gaps, such as those who were jailed for transporting weapons for...