BRATISLAVA, August 5, (WEBNOVINY)- The Prosecutor General Office has filed a lawsuit against Baki Sadiki, the alleged Kosovar Albanian mafia figure with a Slovak passport who has been charged in the extensive drug smuggling case involving 120 kilograms of heroin. Besides Sadiki, two other people have been indicted by the prosecutor.
It is possible that internationally-wanted Baki Sadiki is no longer in hiding in his homeland Kosovo. Slovak law-enforcement authorities had information in the past that Sadiki was hiding in Kosovo, but now they have no relevant information on his current whereabouts.
The Justice Ministry led by former Minister Viera Petrikova filed an extradition request for Sadiki to Serbian authorities in June since Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence. The Ministry could have given its request to EULEX, European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. However, EULEX does not have the right to extradite a Kosovar citizen to a different country; it can only detain the citizen. Slovakia is asking for Sadiki’s arrest and extradition for criminal prosecution based on a bilateral agreement and the European Convention on Extradition.
According to the prosecution, in the latest case involving Baki Sadiki an organized group around him six times smuggled 20-kilogram heroin consignments disguised in footwear imported from Turkey and heading for Poland, Switzerland, and Italy. In at least three of the cases, the drug was temporarily stored in a boarding house in Stary Smokovec in the High Tatras, where the police detained 10 kg of heroin on September 19, 2008, which is the largest amount ever seized in the history of Slovakia. The drugs were smuggled via the Balkan Route, and Sadiki was one of the managing articles. If he is found guilty, Sadiki might end up in prison for a maximum of 25 years.
Baki Sadiki is also known by being on friendly terms with former Justice Minister and current Supreme Court Stefan Harabin, suggested by a recording of conversation from 1994 between the two men. Harabin, however, questions the authenticity of the recording that even Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka confirmed exists.
SITA