Kosovo Court Jails Naser Kelmendi for Drug Trafficking

Pristina Basic Court found Naser Kelmendi guilty on Thursday and sentenced him to four years and eight months of imprisonment on drug trafficking charges.

This was the second trial against Kelmendi and came more than five years after the same court sentenced him to six years of imprisonment on the same charges in February 2018. The verdict was overturned in August that year when Kosovo's Court of Appeals ordered a retrial.

"Naser Kelmendi is [found] guilty because in July-August 2013 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting in an unauthorized manner and in cooperation with a person coded K2 and three other unidentified men, he committed a criminal charge by putting into circulation 25 kilograms of heroin," Judge Suzana Cerkini said in the verdict.

Kelmendi was not present in court when the verdict was announced but his lawyer, Besnik Berisha, announced that he will again appeal the verdict.

Kelmendi's first 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 this 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...