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| Skopje: 192 years for terrorist suspects |
| 12 July 2008 | 15:09
| Source:
Tanjug |
SKOPJE --
A court in Skopje has sentenced 17 people arrested in Tetovo last year to a total of 192 years imprisonment.
The court ruled that the defendants were guilty of terrorist association and possessing illegal weaponry, sentencing them all to prison terms of between 10 and 15 years.
First-accused Lirim Jakupi and Fatos Alija from Kosovo, Amir Sopa from Albania and Metin Islami, who is still on the run, were sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
Jakupi, known as “Nazi commander“, escaped from the UN prison in Dubrava in Kosovo last year, where he was serving a sentence for unrelated offenses.
Jakupi, from near Preševo, was a member of the insurgent Albanian National Army that fought to create a Greater Albania in the Balkans.
Hebib Ahmeti, who is already serving a life sentence for murder, was sentenced to 12 years, while he is also on trial for murder in another case.
According to the indictment, in 2007, in the villages of Brodec and Vesala, the four first-accused formed and trained a group to murder, kidnap and destroy public property, the aim of which to sew insecurity and fear among citizens and threaten the Republic of Macedonia’s constitutional order.
In November 2007, the Macedonia police conducted a large-scale operation during which six group members were killed, including one of the leaders, Ramadan Shiti.
Shiti and one of the other killed terrorists Metina Islamija had earlier aroused the interest of Western intelligence agencies over their links to a series of foundations, mainly from Saudi Arabia, that helped them spread the Wahabbi movement to Kosovo, western Macedonia and the Sandžak, a U.S. official informed Tanjug last November.
The U.S. was also interested in the modern weaponry seized in the Macedonian police operation, which included ammunition, grenades, anti-aircraft rockets, training manuals, as well as cameras and radio transmittors.
The defendants’ lawyers expressed their unhappiness with the verdict, claiming that the real culprits were Jakupi, Alija, Sopa and Islami, while their clients were innocent citizens from Brodec.
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