
"Fatmir Sheholli, recruiter," is what is written in one of the notes kept on the phone by Muharrem Qerimi, accused of espionage by the Kosovo authorities.
Muharrem Qerimi, 58, is a former Kosovo Police official who was arrested on suspicion of espionage in early June 2024.
Qerimi worked in the police until 2006. For the last two years, he also worked as a Serious Crimes Investigator at the Ferizaj Police Station. Since 2012, he is suspected of having carried out espionage activities. He is suspected of working for Serbia.
According to the indictment of the Special Prosecution, Qerimi is suspected of having provided information to the Serbian Secret Service (BIA) about the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Qerimi has not pleaded guilty in court.
The prosecution has discovered his phone messages with a senior BIA official, as well as a folder named 'Notes' which contains notes from the suspect's phone.
The file was published by Paparaci in March of this year.
This file contains 40 notes with important information, according to the indictment filed by special prosecutor Bekim Kodraliu.
"Fatmir Sheholli, recruiter, vetoes Elshani, donated computer for identifying people," reads one of the notes on Qerimi's phone.
The Special Prosecution's indictment states that the note about Sheholli proves that Qerimi has collected information about people rumored in the media for espionage.
"This note confirms the fact that the defendant has collected notes on persons rumored in the media for espionage, as well as on a police officer," the Prosecution's file states.
Almost 25 years after the war, former member of the Serbian State Security (UDB) during the '90s, Fatmir Sheholli, was arrested on Thursday in Pristina on suspicion of espionage.
His arrest was carried out by the Special Prosecution, with the assistance of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, the Prosecution said today in a media release.
The news of his arrest was also confirmed by the acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla.
"Kosovo Police, in close cooperation with the KIA and the prosecution, arrested Fatmir Sheholli today, on well-founded suspicions of involvement in espionage," Sveçla said in a Facebook post.
Sveçla said he expects institutional treatment with great seriousness of this case, "which constitutes one of the most serious acts against security and constitutional order."
Who is Fatmir Sheholli?
Fatmir Sheholli, officially a civil society representative from the Institute for the Advancement of Interethnic Relations, has been rumored in the media to have ties to Serbia. Sheholli has denied the ties.
In the 1990s, during Slobodan Milošević's regime in the former Yugoslavia, he worked in the Serbian State Security (UDB).
He worked in this infamous institution until 1993. After this year, he continued working at Radio Prishtina.
His name had become the subject of discussion in parliament between Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Democratic Party of Kosovo MP Hisen Berisha, who is known for his closeness to Sheholli. Kurti had asked Berisha not to meet with Sheholli.
“I don’t understand Hisen Berisha, he comes at the eighth hour of the discussion and speaks with a written speech,” Kurti said to Sheholli in an assembly session two years ago. “You can help the state of Kosovo and I have a request for you: don’t meet Fatmir Sheholli!”
Sheholli, in a statement to the media last year, claimed to be a witness in the Special Court. He admitted that he was called as a witness in the case of the murder of his father, Maliq Sheholli.
Maliq Sheholli, the father of Fatmir Sheholli, was killed in 1998 during the war in Kosovo. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) claimed responsibility for his murder in a statement released at the time.
In an interview he gave in 1999 in Belgrade to members of the "North American Delegation in Solidarity with Yugoslavia", Sheholli stated that the KLA had killed his father in 1997.
In this interview, according to a quote from the Serbian opposition newspaper "Danas", Sheholli states that his father was called a 'traitor' because he supported Yugoslavia.
"Two years ago, in January 1997, the KLA killed my father. They called him a 'traitor' and killed him only because he supported Yugoslavia and the Serbian government, and not the KLA regime. He wanted to live with all ethnic groups in Kosovo," Fatmir Sheholli is quoted as saying.
But Fatmir Sheholli said that the KLA is not responsible for the murder of his father. /Paparaci.com