Berlin: Germans arrested in Kosovo are indeed BND
The German government has told deputies that three Germans arrested in Kosovo on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office are members of the BND intelligence service , the head of the parliamentary committee oversseing intelligence operations, Thomas Oppermann, said on Thursday
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, November 28, 2008
Oppermann, the Berlin committee chairman, said the trio belong to the BND and had been detained in "inhumane conditions" for the past nine days by the ethnic Albanian authorities.
He said the reasons they were "taken prisoner" remained a "mystery."
"There is no evidence whatever that the three Germans were involved in an attack," he said.
The Pristina District Court decided on Thursday to hand over the case to an international judge, presiding judge Anton Nokaj told reporters.
"We will meet tomorrow morning with the international judge Vinont Bolello and decide how to proceed ...
We think that the best thing is to hand over the case to an international judge," Nokaj said.
The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday that the behaviour of Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in the BND case is an act of revenge for the accusations against him made in this service's report.
"Even before the war, the man who today wears elegant suits participated in violence against Serbian policemen and Albanian collaborators," the German daily said.
The newspaper recalled that Serbian courts had sentenced Thaci in his absence to ten years of prison for terrorism.
The daily also reported that Kosovo was a safe haven for criminals and minefield for international diplomacy and that the Kosovo scene was not attended only by US, Russian and EU representatives and agents from different countries, but also by small and big criminals from different countries.
The BND quoted key politicians and their close connections with the underworld in its 2005 report and said that Thaci had given orders to a professional hitman.
