At the Basic Court of Prishtina, the defendants continued presenting their defense today in the case concerning 400 kilograms of cocaine imported from Brazil. Initially, it was planned that the defendant Kadri Sheqiri would give his defense today, but due to his health condition, it was decided that he would do so another day. Instead, it was defendant Kadri Brahimi who gave his defense before the trial panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the defendants Sheqiri and Brahimi, others accused of importing 400 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil include the owner of the company \u201cMC Food,\u201d Izet Sheqiri, as well as Faton Vrajolli and Fehmi Bytyqi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning of the session, the presiding judge, Ngadhnjim Arni, stated that the court had been informed by the competent authorities that the defendant Kadri Sheqiri had experienced health problems prior to the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday before the hearing, we were informed by the responsible persons, although we have not yet received the written notice, that your client, Kadri Sheqiri, had some health problems prior to the session. In this context, the court seeks your opinion on whether today is an appropriate day for the questioning of the accused, considering his condition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the defendant, Kadri Sheqiri, himself requested not to give his defense today due to his health condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy God, I\u2019m not well at all. Judge: Are you able to continue today or not? … Sheqiri: If the other two after me could continue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Sheqiri left the courtroom, the next to give his defense before the trial panel was the accused Kadri Brahimi, who was first questioned by his defense lawyer, Driton Musliu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brahimi explained that since 2012 he had been working with \u201cMC Food,\u201d first as a regular worker and later, since 2015, as the main warehouse keeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked how, as the main warehouse keeper, he identifies the goods arriving at the warehouse, Brahimi said this is done through the barcode that each package has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy duty was only to count the goods coming in and going out, nothing else. Lawyer: Who is responsible for unloading the goods? … Brahimi: If needed, at the warehouse where the counting and unloading take place, I help if necessary so the work finishes faster… Lawyer: How do you identify one product from the pallet, do you open the pallet to see what\u2019s inside or how do you identify it? … Brahimi: According to the barcode on the package. It\u2019s strictly forbidden for us to open the packages; we\u2019re not allowed because they think we might be doing something suspicious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked why, on the critical day, he had separated some pallets during unloading, Brahimi said the separation was due to the barcodes, as there were two\u2014one labeled 82 and the other 101.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are the procedures, as there were two barcodes, as far as I remember, one was 82 and the other 101, and these goods must not be mixed. In the indictment, you are accused of separating the pallet containing narcotic substances to prevent its identification and keep it from other workers. Did you do that during the unloading of this shipment? … Brahimi: No, that\u2019s not true, and it was seen in the video that the procedures were the same. I heard during the sessions that there were 20 gigabytes of footage \u2014 if there\u2019s even a millimeter of difference, I\u2019ll take full responsibility. From 2015, when I took the position, until that day, the work was always done the same way, without any changes or issues,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether he resisted arrest by the Kosovo Police, Brahimi said he did not resist but claimed he was beat<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, and at the moment the police ordered me, I stopped, but still they beat me with their hands while I was tied like a dog. I didn\u2019t deserve that, and it can be seen on camera,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the questions from his defense lawyer, Brahimi answered those from the prosecutor of the case, Valdet Gashi, who asked when the truck containing the 400 kilograms of drugs had arrived at \u201cMC Food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brahimi said that the security guard had informed him that the truck had arrived, and then he himself had ordered the container to be connected to the power supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, the guard informed me, and I ordered to plug it in\u2014to connect the container to electricity so that the freezer would work and the goods wouldn\u2019t spoil. The guard informed me when the truck arrived at the company, not elsewhere. Judge: Was this truck an urgent shipment? … Brahimi: No, it wasn\u2019t an urgent one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the questioning, the prosecutor confronted Brahimi with a part of his statement given to the prosecution, where he had said that only one truck had arrived that day, while now he stated there were also two others. Brahimi explained that he had thought the question referred to trucks coming from Durr\u00ebs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also stated that on May 17, 2021, he personally unloaded the goods from the truck where the 400 kilograms of cocaine were found and operated the forklift himself that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked by the lawyer of Izet Sheqiri, the owner of \u201cMC Food,\u201d whether his client had ever shown any interest in the goods found in that truck, Brahimi said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom 2015 until May 17, 2021, Izet Sheqiri has never been interested in any truck, never mentioned one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked by lawyer Florent Latifaj what would have happened to the goods if the police had not intervened, Brahimi answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the police hadn\u2019t intervened, those goods would have likely gone to markets all over Kosovo, because we never open the packages. I don\u2019t care whether there are stones, nuggets, or anything else inside \u2014 I only check the number and barcode on the invoice, nothing more. The moment the goods leave the warehouse, I\u2019m no longer responsible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last hearing for the case of the 400 kilograms of cocaine, the defendant Izet Sheqiri, owner of \u201cMC Food,\u201d had already given his defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be recalled that in this case, Hysni Sheqiri was also accused but, after reaching a plea agreement with the prosecution, was sentenced to 7 months of effective imprisonment for obstruction of justice. Another defendant, Naim Morina, also reached a plea deal and was sentenced to 6 months of effective imprisonment for obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the Basic Court of Prishtina, the defendants continued presenting their defense today in the case concerning 400 kilograms of cocaine imported from Brazil. Initially, it was planned that the defendant Kadri Sheqiri would give his defense today, but due to his health condition, it was decided that he would do so another day. Instead, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,296],"tags":[6877,6878,6880,411,6879],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77696,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77694\/revisions\/77696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}