{"id":79696,"date":"2025-07-04T19:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T17:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/?p=79696"},"modified":"2025-07-04T20:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:04:07","slug":"indictment-raised-against-minister-in-kosovo-accused-of-abuse-of-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/indictment-raised-against-minister-in-kosovo-accused-of-abuse-of-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Indictment Raised Against Minister in Kosovo, Accused of Abuse of Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Special Prosecution of Kosovo has filed an indictment for abuse of official position against the acting Minister for Regional Development, Fikrim Damka, and the acting Secretary of this Ministry, Besim Kamberaj.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accuse Damka and Kamberaj of causing damage to Kosovo\u2019s budget amounting to around 1 million euros.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement on Friday, Damka and Kamberaj are accused of having exceeded their legal competences with the aim of providing financial gain to two non-governmental organizations\u2014Germin and the Swiss Caritas\u2014during the period between August 16, 2021, and March 24, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors charge them with acting in violation of the Law on International Agreements and the Procedures for Public Financing of NGOs, and contrary to the Ministry\u2019s competences, by exceeding the limits of NGO financing from public funds \u201cby funding the aforementioned organizations without organizing a public call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is well-founded suspicion that the defendants caused damage to the budget of Kosovo in the amount of \u20ac1,040,000,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution said it has requested the Basic Court in Pristina to find the defendants guilty after the judicial review and to impose a fine and an effective prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p>If found guilty, they face up to five years in prison under Kosovo\u2019s Penal Code.<\/p>\n<p>Fikrim Damka \u2013 who is the chairman of the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo \u2013 was appointed Minister for Regional Development in the second Kurti government in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Special Prosecution of Kosovo has filed an indictment for abuse of official position against the acting Minister for Regional Development, Fikrim Damka, and the acting Secretary of this Ministry, Besim Kamberaj. Prosecutors accuse Damka and Kamberaj of causing damage to Kosovo\u2019s budget amounting to around 1 million euros. According to a statement on Friday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":79697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,1803],"tags":[243,151],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Indictment Raised Against Minister in Kosovo, Accused of Abuse of Office - Euronews Albania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/indictment-raised-against-minister-in-kosovo-accused-of-abuse-of-office\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indictment Raised Against Minister in Kosovo, Accused of Abuse of Office - Euronews Albania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Special Prosecution of Kosovo has filed an indictment for abuse of official position against the acting Minister for Regional Development, Fikrim Damka, and the acting Secretary of this Ministry, Besim Kamberaj. Prosecutors accuse Damka and Kamberaj of causing damage to Kosovo\u2019s budget amounting to around 1 million euros. 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