The Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo has filed an indictment at the Special Department of the Basic Court in Prishtina against 19 people, identified only through initials, for the criminal offence of ‘abuse of official position or authority.’ Those indicted are thought to include former ministers Besim Beqaj, Mimoza Kusari, Dardan Gashi and Nenad Rasic.

The case relates to a meeting of the Kosovo Government’s Privatization Committee on May 8, 2013, in which four hydropower plants were privatised alongside Kosovo’s power distribution network, with ownership of the power plants passing first to the Kosovo Electricity Distribution and Supply Company, KKDFE, and then to Turkish conglomerate Limak-Calik. 

Beqaj was the chairman of the Privatization Committee, while Kusari, Gashi and Rasic were all members. Numerous members of the then boards of KKDFE and the Kosovo Energy Corporation, KEK were also indicted on Friday.

The prosecution jointly charges the indictees with the crime of abuse of official position through bribery. If found guilty, the accused may be sentenced to between six months and five years in prison, as well as being issued a fine. 

The Special Prosecution began preliminary investigations into the case in 2016, after newspaper Koha Ditore revealed that the four hydropower plants privatised together with the power distribution network did not appear in the bidding package. A formal investigation was then opened in May 2018.

Visar Prebreza, author of the Koha Ditore investigation who is currently an editor at BIRN Kosovo’s KALLXO.com, told Prishtina Insight that it is a pleasure when journalistic work leads to an indictment.

“The privatisation of the four hydropower plants was done in an insidious way, and decreased the value of KKDFE – these hydropower plants were not sold but given away,” said Prebreza, adding that he hoped the court would bring those responsible to justice.

The ministers who oversaw the privatisation of the network, which was sold for a mere 26.3 million euros, declared in 2016 that they had no information that the hydropower plants were part of the package.

However, the Special Prosecution’s indictment states that members of the privatisation committee “exceeded their competencies and worked against their duties” in order to “enable the enrichment of another person” by unanimously voting for the privatisation.

The indictment adds that the transfer and privatisation process was unlawful, as Kosovo law prohibits electricity supply companies from applying for or holding a license that would give them control over both transmission and generation of electricity. However, following the 2013 deal, Limak-Calik now owns the four hydropower plants and the distribution network, now known as the Kosovo Energy Distribution Service, KEDS.

The prosecution also claims that more than 12.5 million euros in damages were caused to KEK and its major shareholder, the Kosovo Government, due to the undervaluation of assets during the deal.

Mimoza Kusari, who was Minister of Trade and Industry in 2013 as part of a PDK-AKR coalition government, reiterated on Friday that the hydropower plants inclusion in the deal was not part of discussions. 

“Not even once in the Privatisation Committee meetings about KEDS was the inclusion of the four hydropower plants discussed,” she told BIRN following news of the indictment. Currently an MP as part of the Vetevendosje parliamentary group, Kusari told BIRN that she would not stand down from politics until a final verdict was reached. 

Former director of KEK, Arben Gjuka, also thought to be among those indicted, told BIRN he had no comment on the situation. “I have no comment on anything, even now I know I have no information about it,” he said. “I have nothing to add.”