- Title: VARIOUS: FBI most wanted man lives openly in Kosovo
- Date: 25th November 2010
- Summary: MITROVICA, KOSOVO (RECENT - NOVEMBER 19, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) FBI WANTED SUSPECT, BAJRAM ASLLANI, SAYING: "If I am armed, the police are 10 metres away from my house and they would know it. If I were armed and dangerous, I would not be in this situation but I would have a better life. It is up to them if they want to suspect me, but the reality and the
- Embargoed: 10th December 2010 12:00
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- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVATWO516EE1D793DX0IAHIJ34C
- Story Text: A Kosovo Albanian man who is wanted by the FBI, continues to live freely in Kosovo after a failed attempt to extradite him to the U.S. earlier this year.
The United States considers lumberjack Bajram Asllani one of its most wanted men but, because of Kosovo's unusual international status, it is unable to extradite and interrogate him.
The 30-year-old lives with his family between a UN building and a former police station, just over 100 metres away from the Mitrovica Bridge which separates the city, divided between ethnic Serbs and Albanians.
The FBI "wanted" poster on the Internet has made life difficult for Asllani, who lives on state unemployment benefits for his wife and three children of just 75 euros (100 USD) a month.
"My life has become very complicated since 2007, when the UN and our (Kosovo) police took me. I lost my job as a night guard and also lost my second job as a woodcutter. Now, nobody wants to hire me," he said.
Albanians see the U.S. as a saviour for its 1999 intervention against Serbia, and later for backing Kosovo statehood. Many see Asllani as a traitor for allegedly wanting to hurt America, but Asllani says the accusations against him are false.
"I haven't changed my mind (about the U.S.). Just as I felt when they helped us (in 1999), I also feel now that they are continuing to help us. I don't believe that these accusations were fabricated by them (the U.S.). The Serbs are the ones I blame for fabricating these accusations," he said.
The FBI wanted poster says Asllani is a "co-conspirator with a group of eight individuals in the United States who were allegedly co-conspiring to engage in violent jihad, or holy war, and to raise money for mujihadeen, or warriors engaged in violent jihad".
But Asllani says the accusations against him are laughable: "If I am armed, the police are 10 metres away from my house and they would know it. If I were armed and dangerous, I would not be in this situation but I would have a better life. It is up to them if they want to suspect me, but the reality and the truth are on my side," he said.
The man the FBI considers highly dangerous lives next door to a United Nations building, and on a typical day prays in a local mosque and greets police officers when he goes shopping.
Asllani was arrested in June but released after EU judges rejected a U.S. request for his extradition. The EU judges found that the United States had not provided sufficient grounds for believing that Asllani had committed the offences, and also cited the absence of an extradition accord between Washington and Pristina.
The EU's Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) said a 1901 treaty, signed between the U.S and the former Kingdom of Serbia, which Kosovo was once a part of, was partly behind the decision.
"Kosovo supreme court decided at the beginning of September not to extradite Mr Asllani. The reasoning by the supreme court was that there was a treaty signed in 1901 and the conditions which are described there, and also which are mentioned in Kosovo law did not meet. It means that to extradite somebody, that some crimes has to be committed in Kosovo, but allegedly it was unclear were they allegedly committed in Kosovo or not. And also, when it comes to this treaty, it is not unclear is it still in force or not," spokesperson Kristina Herodes said.
Asllani's case is caught up in the hybrid legal system of Kosovo, whose own weak judicial system leaves European Union judges and prosecutors to handle major cases involving terrorism and war crimes.
Kosovo, whose independence was recognised by all but a handful of countries nearly three years ago, wants to join the European Union one day but remains an international protectorate more than a decade after its war for liberation from Serbia. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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