‘Offer Kosovar Fighters “Jihadi Rehab” to Combat Extremism’

House arrests ‘poorly enforced’

Returnee fighters, many with battlefield experience and skilled in the use of explosives and weapons, are widely regarded as a security threat. So the fact that at least 35 suspected ISIS and Al Nusra returnee fighters are not in custody while they stand trial has raised eyebrows in Kosovo.

Anti-terror law reforms

In March 2015, Kosovo’s government adopted new laws the made “joining or participating” in foreign armies, police, paramilitary or para-police groups a criminal offence, punishable by jail terms of three to 15 years. Kosovars with dual nationality serving for military and police units controlled by internationally-recognised governments or organisations are exempt. Those found guilty of organising, recruiting, leading or training others with the aim of illegally joining foreign police or military groups face between five and 15 years in jail. Directly or indirectly funding or offering material assistance to a person who intends to illegally join a foreign police or military group is punishable with prison sentences of three to 15 years. However, many Kosovars returned to the country before the new laws were passed and are being tried under anti-terrorism laws passed in December 2012. Those laws criminalised committing, assisting and facilitating terrorist acts, recruiting, training and inciting acts of terror, participation in terrorist groups and preparing terrorist activities. If convicted, the accused face jail terms of five years to life imprisonment.

Critics note that house arrest and control orders are not suitable for high-risk suspects and, as such, are not always rigorously enforced in Kosovo. The first-instance Basic Court in Pristina confirmed five suspects were put back behind bars after they violated house arrest or control order terms.

Some are thought to have even left the country while under house arrest, including Bekim Mulolli who was standing trial on terrorism charges related to assaulting two American Catholic missionaries in Pristina.

Mulolli admitted assaulting the missionaries and expressed regret but the prosecution had widened their investigation and charged him with additional terrorism offences. He was placed under house arrest in February 2015 but went missing later that year.

He is rumoured to have been killed while fighting in Syria, according to a statement released in December by the trial judge, Nora Bllaca. The authorities have not been able to verify whether Mulolli did die in Syria.

Some suspects have been released under control orders stipulating they report to their local police station on a weekly basis. Kosovo does not require suspects to wear electronic ankle bracelets so their movements may be monitored.

Kreshnik Gashi, a legal expert and presenter of the Justice in Kosovo TV programme, describes the decision to release so many suspects from detention as “strange… given that the police poorly enforce house arrest measures”.

“Usually the only verification is a daily visit by police officers from the suspect’s local station. Imagine where a person… can go in 24 hours,” he says.

The ISIS leader of Kosovar jihadists, Ridvan Haqifi (second from the left) with  fellow fighters in Syria, autumn 2015. Photo ISIS

‘Plead guilty or stay in jail’

While many worry suspects who may pose a genuine threat to security are too loosely monitored while under house arrest, lawyers have also voiced concerns that clients are being pressured into pleading guilty to avoid being held in custody while on trial.

Gezim Baloku is representing Artan Kadriu who is accused of ‘organising and participating in terrorist organisations’. Kadriu eventually entered a guilty plea and was released from custody and placed under house arrest.

“What this means is ‘plead guilty and we’ll let you out of jail’. This isn’t fair, it’s blackmailing the suspect,” says Baloku.

Hilmi Zhitia, a lawyer who served as chief prosecutor when Kosovo was part of the former Yugoslavia, has also criticised releasing suspects, some said to have been charged despite scant evidence of wrongdoing, apparently in return for guilty pleas.

“They have made detention a form of blackmailing and the court is not able to assess whether a suspect that pleads guilty is charged on any evidence at all,” he says.

Shpend Kursani, an associate researcher at the KCSS, believes some prosecutions have been launched “in haste and with little evidence”, saying this suggests politicians are trying to look like they are addressing the issue.

Some indictments seen by BIRN are just a couple of paragraphs long and appear to rely on just text messages sent to suspects but not replied to or testimony from one witness.

Key prosecutions to date More than 50 Kosovars have been charged with offences including recruitment to commit terrorist acts, facilitation and support of terrorist activities, organising and participating in terrorist organisations and illegal possession of firearms. Around 40 are accused of having joined ISIS or Al Nusra in Syria and Iraq during 2013 and 2014. Four Kosovars were jailed between 2015 and early 2016 for participation in terrorist groups, namely ISIS and Al Nusra. All had entered guilty pleas and expressed remorse. Fitim Lladrovci, a former ISIS fighter from Kosovo, gained country-wide attention when, in 2014, he returned a minor to his mother in Kosovo. The child’s jihadist father had taken the boy to Syria without the knowledge of his wife. The leader of Kosovar ISIS fighters in Syria, Ridvan Haqifi, declared Lladrvoci an apostate and issued a death sentence on him. Lladrovci was jailed for five years in January 2015 for participation in terrorist organisations and for firearms possession. Following the 2014 arrests, 32 suspects are being jointly tried at the Palace of Justice in Pristina on a variety of terrorism related offences. Not all the cases are directly linked. At the time of writing, 18 had entered guilty pleas and were placed under house arrest or control orders – most of them during the first half of 2015 - while the courts reviewed their cases. Most of the others that deny the charges were also released from detention and placed under lighter security measures. To date, only one of the 32 suspects, Hajdin Elezi, remains in custody. He denies participating in terrorist organisations. No one has yet been convicted of recruiting fighters or other material-assistance related offences.

BIRN contacted the Special Prosecutor’s Office in Kosovo several times for a response to the claims but has not yet received one.

Aside from concerns over how prosecutions have been managed, Skender Perteshi, researcher and project officer at the KCSS, cautions the new laws in themselves are unlikely to deter Kosovars leaving for the battlefields of Syria and Iraq who “have very little respect… for government laws that are not related to their version of Sharia [law]”.

The strategy acknowledges that jihadists have been motivated by different factors, including ideology, a sense of injustice over atrocities committed in Syria and Iraq, propaganda, a desire for adventure and the chance of holding leadership roles they are unlikely to attain at home.The need for a comprehensive anti-extremism programme has been recognised by the government and it published its official strategy - Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalisation Leading to Terrorism 2015 to 2020 – in February this year. Proposals include measures outside of rule-of-law agencies to tackle radicalisation, including religious education and multi-agency awareness-raising campaigns.

‘Radicals exploit disillusioned youths’

While stating money is not a key driver for radicalisation in itself, the strategy notes Kosovo’s high unemployment and poverty rates are aggravating factors. The state’s statistics agency puts unemployment at 35 per cent, with youth unemployment at 65 per cent.

Perteshi from the KCSS says extremists have been able to exploit disillusioned, marginalised and poorly educated youths in the absence of tangible state efforts to improve the lot of young Kosovars.

“Education has been undermined… this has resulted in a lack of critical thinking among students,” he says. “We should not forget that Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe and this comes with responsibilities to the younger population. The young should feel important and useful to their country, they should be able to channel their energy and desires.”

Perteshi also says that many jihadists were actually new to Islam and had little religious instruction. The KCSS estimates around 70 per cent of those who fought in Syria and Iraq came from families that were not practising Muslims.

“They [young jihadi fighters] were referring to incompetent, dubious and radical scholars,” he says.

The Islamic Community of Kosova, BIK, is responsible for appointing imams and overseeing religious affairs. It has drawn much criticism for its perceived failure to address the issue of violent extremism and radical preaching.

Perteshi agrees the BIK was slow to respond but underlines it still has no official mandate to enforce regulation of mosques and imams. Legislation regulating religious institutions has not yet been passed despite being the subject of debate for 10 years.

“The absence of a law that regulates religious communities in Kosovo has invalidated the executive powers of the BIK, including over its own imams. The BIK can only decide not to pay an imam but they cannot fire them,” he says.

In response to BIRN’s request for comment on its role in preventing and tackling extremism, the BIK sent a written statement stressing it had publicly denounced the actions of violent extremists while noting it “does not hold executive powers”.

“The [extremist] groups are opposed to Islamic teachings, the Koran and the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, which unequivocally forbid taking an innocent life… [BIK counsels]…all Muslim believers to not fall for this un-Islamic propaganda… Islam is a religion of peace not violence, it does not preach terror,” the statement reads.

Ekrem Avdiu, imam of a mosque in the city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, acknowledges “de-radicalisation of individuals can hardly be achieved but by bringing the right imams into the game”, but says the government should shoulder some of the responsibility for failing to counter violent extremism.

“If 300 youths went [to fight] in Syria… the responsibility falls primarily on the security structures. State institutions should ask themselves where they went wrong,” he says.

‘Free advertising for ISIS’

Both Avdiu and Kursani are also critical of some media outlets who have, they believe, gifted ISIS with free marketing.

“Irresponsible media… provide free advertisement for ISIS by reproducing and distributing their propaganda material,” says Kursani.

Ekrem Avdiu believes some outlets and journalists have taken “an increasingly aggressive stance”.

“Some… often engage in irresponsible reporting, using defamatory words and even hate speech targeting Muslims. Instead of trying to better understand and compare Islamic teachings with the actions of extremists for the sake of informing the public and to contribute to the fight against extremism, they resort to inciting fear and divisions in society. Basically, every bearded man is [portrayed as] a terrorist,” he says.

Imam Ekrem Avdiu says some Kosovo media outlets “often engage in irresponsible reporting” on Islamic extremism. Photo: BIRN

Perteshi from the KCSS agrees prior to the police raids there had not been any “real discussion that Kosovars should not become part of this war, including the [Islamic] rules of participating in jihad”.

While returnee fighters deemed to pose a security threat should, say experts, be handled within the criminal justice system, others are concerned the government has been slow to provide for case-by-case assessments of whether returnees pose a threat.

“If somebody went to Syria to fight and then came back after a short time, perhaps disillusioned, is it logical [for them] to be subjected to repressive measures or to be included in a rehabilitation programme?” asks Avdiu.

The government’s counter-extremism strategy does outline proposals to assess returnees individually and offer rehabilitation programmes inside and outside prisons, but experts say a comprehensive plan should be implemented as a matter of urgency.

Kursani from the KCSS says the threat of incarceration will not only deter fighters – including those disillusioned with ISIS and Al Nusra – from coming home but could also result in unintended and unwanted consequences. He describes simply locking returnees up as akin to throwing “the grenade under the rug temporarily”.

His colleague, Perteshi, notes there are already indications that some disillusioned returnees are being radicalised again after being put in detention.

“This is a real issue… a concrete plan is needed to address returned fighters. Prison is not a universal solution to the problem and in some instances it may prove counterproductive,” he warns.

This article was produced as part of BIRN’s Strengthening Media Reporting and Public Understanding of Extremism in the Western Balkans project, supported with funding from the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The content does not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British government.