Kosovo prison escapee on EU, US blacklists

21/08/2007

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Serbia -- Lirim Jakupi, who escaped a Kosovo prison at the weekend along with six other dangerous convicts, has been on a EU blacklist since January 2005, news agencies reported. A member of the self-styled Albanian National Liberation Army, he is reportedly also on a US list. Nicknamed "Commander Nazi", he was being held in Kosovo in connection with several attacks, including the murder of a Serbian policeman. The Tanjug news agency says Washington put him on a blacklist in 2004 because of his role in clashes with Macedonian security forces near Tetovo and the Skopje suburb of Kondovo.

Also among the fugitives is Ramadan Shiti, a Saudi-born Islamic terrorist expelled by his own country for plotting to assassinate public figures. He was arrested by KFOR in 2005 for murdering a Macedonian taxi driver, and has also been charged with carrying out a bomb attack in Skopje.

On Monday, the Kosovo Police Service asked Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania to help catch the seven escapees. Five corrections officers at the prison are suspected of having helped them. (Tanjug, MRT, A1, B92, Beta, BIRN, Makfax, Times Online - 20/08/07)