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Kosovo/ The former Minister of Infrastructure is sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison

2024-01-31 12:46:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Kosovo/ The former Minister of Infrastructure is sentenced to 3 years and 8
Paul Lekaj

A court in Pristina sentenced on Wednesday the former Minister of Infrastructure Pal Lekaj and three other officials under charges of "misuse of official duties and damage to the budget of Kosovo".

The four officials were found guilty of sharing an additional 53 million euros for the "Bechtel&Enka" company that built the Pristina-Hani i Elezit highway that connects Kosovo to Macedonia.

The highway with a length of about 60 kilometers which was inaugurated in 2019 has cost the Kosovo budget 600 million euros.

The former Minister of Infrastructure, Pal Lekaj, currently a deputy in the Parliament of Kosovo from the ranks of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, was sentenced to three years and eight months of imprisonment as well as a ban on exercising the function in the public administration for three years and six months.

Eset Berisha, the former political advisor of the former minister Lekaj, was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months of imprisonment and a ban on exercising the function in public administration or public service for a period of 3 years.

Nebih Shatri, Secretary General in the Ministry of Infrastructure, was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months of imprisonment and a ban on exercising public office for a period of 2 years.

The same sentence was imposed on Besim Tahir, director of Public Procurement in this ministry.

In 2018, the government of Kosovo allocated an additional 53 million euros to the company building the highway due to the failure of the previous government to properly fulfill its obligations to the builder.

A highway construction supervision company contracted by the government of Kosovo had said that the obligations to the construction company amounted to about 14 million euros.

The decision incited debate and dissatisfaction, leading to the investigation of the case and the indictment in 2022 against Mr. Lekaj and three other officials./VOA





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