Thursday

30th Mar 2023

Kosovo releases German suspects under Berlin pressure

  • Berlin put 'massive pressure' on Pristina to release the three Germans. (Photo: Torkil Sørensen/norden.org)

The three German citizens arrested last month over an attack on the European Union's headquarters in Pristina returned home on Saturday (29 November), after a United Nations judge ordered their release due to lack of evidence on Friday.

The men had been accused of setting off an explosion on 14 November that rattled the office of EU Kosovo envoy Pieter Feith, without injuring anyone.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"The federal government was always certain of the innocence of the three Germans," Thomas Steg, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in a statement.

Berlin had put "massive pressure" on Pristina to free the men, alleged to be agents of the German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND), and had threatened Kosovo with economic aid cuts, the German Welt am Sonntag weekly reports.

"Nothing has been decided, but it is accurate that a certain amount of pressure was exercised and that these [aid cuts] considerations are taking place," anonymous German sources confirmed to French news agency AFP.

After the US, Germany is the second largest donor to Kosovo. It has pledged €100 million worth of aid from 2009-2010. Additionally, Berlin has given Pristina some €280 million since 1999.

Germany was also among the first EU states to recognise Kosovo's unilaterally proclaimed independence earlier this year. But the BND affair has caused a chill in the relations between Berlin and Pristina.

Meanwhile, a previously unknown Albanian group calling itself the Army of the Republic of Kosovo last week claimed responsibility for the blast, and threatened further attacks against the Serb minority in Kosovo.

Kosovar revenge?

According to media reports, the Kosovar arrests may have been an act of revenge for a strongly critical BND report on organised crime in Kosovo and a confidential report by the German military, the Bundeswehr, on the same issue.

Both intelligence reports accuse Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, as well as former premier Ramush Haradinaj and Xhavit Haliti, a high-ranking official in Kosovo's parliament, of involvement in organised crime.

"The key players are intimately involved in inter-linkages between politics, business, and organised crime structures in Kosovo," Die Welt quotes the BND report as saying.

It accuses Mr Thaci of leading a "criminal network operating throughout Kosovo" at the end of the 1990s - at the same time that he co-founded the Kosovo Liberation Army to fight for Kosovo's independence from the then Yugoslavia.

It also says Mr Haradinaj was involved "in the full spectrum of criminal, political and military activities."

MEPs press EU Commission over Qatari-paid business-class flights

Pro-transparency MEPs are asking probing questions into possible conflict of interest between a senior EU commission official and Qatar, following revelations his business class trips were paid by Doha while negotiating a market access deal for its national airline.

Feature

Germany as a laboratory of 'communism vs capitalism'

A new exhibition at the Deutsches Historiches Musuem in Berlin unveils industrial photography of Germany's steel, coal, car, chemical and textile industries from the 1950s to 1980s — some in East Germany, some in West. But which was which?

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Opinion

Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown

Turkey goes to the polls in May for both a new parliament and new president, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided against a post-earthquake postponement. The parliamentary outcome is easy to predict — the presidential one less so.

Latest News

  1. Work insecurity: the high cost of ultra-fast grocery deliveries
  2. The overlooked 'crimes against children' ICC arrest warrant
  3. EU approves 2035 phaseout of polluting cars and vans
  4. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering
  5. What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking
  6. Dear EU, the science is clear: burning wood for energy is bad
  7. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  8. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us