VZCZCXRO8002
OO RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHPS #0640/01 2351228
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231228Z AUG 07
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7635
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1256
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
RHFMISS/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
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RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE PRIORITY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000640 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, 
USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT 
FOR ACKER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2017 
TAGS: PGOV KJUS KCRM PINR EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: SEVEN OF KOSOVO'S MOST DANGEROUS PRISONERS 
BREAK FREE 
 
Classified By: CDA ALEX LASKARIS FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:  Seven of Kosovo's most notorious and 
dangerous criminals escaped from the Kosovo Corrections 
Service (KCS)-run Dubrava Prison at approximately 4:15 p.m. 
on August 18.  The prisoners, convicted of crimes ranging 
from murdering an international police officer to committing 
terrorist acts, were reportedly in a "walking pavilion" of 
the maximum security prison when one pulled a gun on a 
corrections officer and demanded his prison keys.  When the 
corrections officer refused to hand them over, the seven 
climbed over the prison wall.  The ringleader fired back into 
the pavilion as he made his way over the wall, covering 
himself and the others.  Moments later, they scaled an outer 
wall about 400 meters away, as supporters on the outside 
fired AK-47s into the prison compound to cover their escape. 
Police believe a getaway vehicle whisked away three prisoners 
with possible Albanian National Army (AKSH) ties, while the 
other four escaped on foot.  Despite a massive police search 
with KFOR helicopter support, all seven remain at large. 
Police sources say intelligence indicates that the escapees 
are well-armed and bound for, if not already in, Macedonia. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
Seven convicts break free of Dubrava 
 
¶2. (C) According to UNMIK Police and Kosovo Police Service 
(KPS) reports, seven inmates escaped from the Kosovo 
Corrections Service (KCS)-run Dubrava Prison at about 4:15 
p.m. on August 18.  The escapees -- Burim Basha, Faton 
Hajrizi, Lirim Jakupi, Xhavit Morina, Astrit Shabani, Ramadan 
Shyti and Amir Sopa -- are among Kosovo's most dangerous 
criminals and were serving sentences for crimes including 
robbery, murder of an international police officer and 
terrorism.  Police sources tell USOP that at least three are 
believed to be members of the Albanian National Army (AKSH), 
which UNMIK has designated a terrorist organization. 
 
¶3. (C) A KPS press release says that the seven convicts were 
in a "walking pavilion" when one of them pulled a gun on a 
corrections officer and demanded his prison keys.  When the 
corrections officer refused to hand them over, the seven 
climbed over the prison wall.  The ringleader fired back into 
the pavilion as he made his way over the wall, covering 
himself and the others.  Moments later, they allegedly scaled 
an outer wall approximately 400 meters away.  UNMIK Police 
Special Advisor for Operations Larry Wilson (protect) told 
USOP that  supporters on the outside fired AK-47s into the 
prison compound to cover the prisoners' escape.  He said 
police believe that a getaway vehicle whisked away three 
prisoners with possible AKSH ties, while the other four 
escaped on foot.  According to Wilson, ten rocket-propelled 
grenades (RPGs) were found where the getaway vehicle was 
believed to have been parked. 
 
Convicts still at large despite massive search operation 
 
¶4. (C) Wilson said Polish Formed Police Units (FPUs), who 
guard the outer perimeter of the prison, followed standard 
operating procedures and focused on ensuring that other 
prisoners did not escape rather than chasing after the 
escapees.  According to police reports, KPS and UNMIK Police 
immediately launched a large-scale search operation involving 
nearly 200 officers within a 10-kilometer radius of Dubrava 
with KFOR helicopter support.  While the first phase of the 
search ended unsuccessfully the afternoon of August 19 and 
the seven convicts are still at large, the police did arrest 
five corrections officers who may have assisted in the prison 
break, as well as four outside accomplices.  (Note: According 
to KPS Spokesperson Veton Elshani, three corrections officers 
and three outside accomplices received 30 days detention, and 
two corrections officers and one outside accomplice were 
released on normal procedure.  End Note)  The Peja Regional 
Investigative Unit and Serious Crime Division in Pristina are 
continuing search efforts and have publicly urged citizens to 
come forward with any relevant information.  UNMIK Police 
 
PRISTINA 00000640  002 OF 003 
 
 
Commissioner Richard Monk has also announced a 5,000 euro 
reward for information leading to the apprehension of one or 
more of the fugitives. 
 
¶5. (C) Wilson told USOP that one of the outside accomplices 
claims the prisoners were instructed to go to Malisevo to 
meet a contact in a cafe and then move on to the Tetovo area 
of Macedonia.  Wilson said investigators believe the three 
suspected AKSH fugitives are still together and very 
well-armed; the accomplice said they have access to six 
AK-47s and three RPGs.  Wilson stressed that police are very 
worried about what the seven may do next and what motive 
their accomplices may have had for helping them escape.  He 
did not comment as to whether the accomplice in custody may 
have shed any light on this, but he did point out that 
Hajrizi is good with explosives and all of the fugitives have 
impressive criminal pedigrees. 
 
Who's Who Among Kosovo Criminals 
 
¶6. (SBU) The list of escapees reads like a veritable Who's 
Who among Kosovo criminals, and three of them even boast 
prior prison break experience.  Xhavit Morina tops the list 
as, perhaps, the most dangerous.  Also known as Commander 
Shkelqim Drenica, Morina is a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) 
veteran and is designated as an extremist under President 
Bush's Executive Order of May 2003.  He was serving a 12-year 
sentence for charges of terrorism stemming from his 
involvement in AKSH and participation in a March 2002 battle 
between AKSH and the rival National Liberation Army (NLA) 
near Tetovo, in which two civilians were killed.  During part 
of his prison stay, Morina's associates maintained a 
now-defunct website at www.xhavitmorina.com in which Morina 
denied his AKSH links and accused Macedonian Albanian leader 
Ali Ahmeti and his associates of orchestrating all of his 
troubles.  In a couple of 2002 media interviews, Morina 
professed to belong to the "real AKSH" and provided elaborate 
accounts of the March 2002 incident, thus contradicting the 
website. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Lirim Jakupi, also known as Commander Nazi, is a 
Liberation Army for Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) 
veteran and was serving a six-year sentence for kidnapping 
stemming from his involvement in a criminal enterprise in 
Gjilan led by former UCPMB Chief Commander Shefket Musliu. 
Jakupi is believed to have been engaged in illegal activities 
on behalf of AKSH in the Presevo Valley, Kosovo and 
Macedonia, including a March 2003 administrative boundary 
line (ABL) clash near Presevo in which two AKSH members were 
killed in an exchange of fire with Serbian police.  Jakupi 
was also among a group that seized the village of Kondovo, 
near Skopje, Macedonia, in June 2004, ostensibly to protest 
the Macedonian government's treatment of ex-Albanian 
fighters.  Macedonian authorities tried to arrest him in an 
apartment in Tetovo in December 2004, but he escaped, badly 
wounded, and managed to cross the border into Kosovo.  He 
sought medical assistance at the Pristina University Clinical 
Center, where he was arrested thanks to a tip from his 
doctors.  A Serbian court convicted Jakupi in absentia to 15 
years in prison in 2005 for his role in the assassination of 
an ethnic Albanian Serbian Security and Intelligence Agency 
(BIA) officer. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Faton Hajrizi made headlines at the age of 15 for 
murdering a Russian KFOR soldier in Skenderaj.  A notorious 
delinquent in the Drenica area, Hajrizi was tried as a 
juvenile and received a five-year sentence.  He later grew 
even more infamous thanks to numerous prison breaks (between 
five and six depending on the source) and his continuing 
criminal escapades between prison stays.  He was serving time 
in Dubrava for robbery and is rumored to have claimed to be a 
member of AKSH.  During a stint in Mitrovica prison, Hajrizi 
shared a cell with the notorious Sabit Geci, a former chief 
of the KLA secret police who was convicted of racketeering. 
Hajrizi was most recently arrested at the Pristina Airport in 
2006 when he arrived on a flight from Germany and attempted 
 
PRISTINA 00000640  003 OF 003 
 
 
to enter Kosovo with false identity documents. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Amir Sopa was serving time for terrorism thanks to a 
June 20, 2003 RPG attack on the Pristina District Court and 
threatening letters he sent to three individuals, including 
Pristina Mayor Ismet Beqiri, on behalf of AKSH in May 2003. 
AKSH denied through a spokesperson that it was behind the 
threatening letter to Beqiri, and the letter's content 
differed from AKSH's usual rhetoric and style.  A former 
member of the KLA who served under current Democratic Party 
of Kosovo (PDK) Vice President Rrustem Remi Mustafa, Sopa is 
rumored to have been involved in the racketeering business in 
the post-war period. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Unlike the others, Ramadan Shyti, Burim Basha and 
Astrit Shabani did not have much of a public profile prior to 
the prison break.  Like Jakupi, Shyti is believed to have 
been a member of the armed group that seized the village of 
Kondovo in June 2004.  He was serving time for a possible 
murder and illegal border crossing.  KFOR picked him up in 
the Kacanik area in 2005 based on an international arrest 
warrant for a possible murder and illegal border crossing. 
Shyti had escaped from a Macedonian prison where he was 
awaiting trial for the murder of a Skopje taxi driver.  Some 
media have claimed he was born in Saudi Arabia, but KPS 
Spokesperson Veton Elshani told USOP he was born in a village 
near Kacanik, Kosovo.  Prizren native Burim Basha was serving 
a 10-year sentence for robbery.  He first made headlines in 
May 2002 when, together with his brother and several others, 
he escaped from Dubrava Prison.  He was re-arrested near 
Kukes, Albania in February 2003.  According to Albanian 
media, Basha was involved in stealing vehicles on both sides 
of the border during his stay in Albania.  Astrit Shabani is 
virtually unknown.  A Pristina resident until the time of his 
incarceration, he was serving time for murder. 
 
¶11. (C) COMMENT: The Dubrava Prison break is disturbing for 
two reasons.  First, seven extremely dangerous men are on the 
loose in Kosovo or Macedonia.  Second, it illustrates how 
vulnerable Dubrava Prison is to escapes or even possible 
rebellions.  The European Union Planning Team (EUPT) is aware 
of the Kosovo Corrections Service (KCS)'s shortcomings and 
already has plans in place to provide more capacity-building 
support and, if necessary, intervene in emergency situations 
at Dubrava Prison.  USOP will urge EUPT to review these plans 
in light of the prisoner escape to see if they can take 
stronger measures to shore up the KCS and fortify Dubrava. 
USOP will also continue to monitor closely developments in 
the search for the seven fugitives.  END COMMENT. 
LASKARIS