TIRANA, April 5 – Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences ranging between 15 and 20 years for nine Islamist radicals accused of recruiting and sending Albanian citizens to fight as Islamic State insurgents in the Middle East.
The Serious Crimes Prosecution said it had secured enough evidence following lengthy investigations in coordination with other law enforcement agencies that the defendants had managed to convince and send Albanian Muslims to join radical groups fighting in Syria, an activity mainly conducted by the accused in 2013.
The prosecutors sought a combined sentence of 152 years for the nine defendants on charges ranging from incitement of hatred to terrorist financing and recruitment. One of the defendants in the case is also facing charges related to illegal weapons possession. Among the defendants are two imams who preached in mosques in the outskirts of Tirana, which were not recognized by Albania’s official Muslim Community. The imams together with seven aides have maintained a defiant stance throughout the trial defending their actions. They have refused defense attorneys and deny the charges, despite hard evidence collected against them.
The trial has been marred by delays following heated debate with witnesses in the case. Meanwhile, another imam involved in recruitment of fighters on behalf of ISIS believed to be in Syria is said to have died. The former imam of a local mosque in Pogradec, southeastern Albania, has reportedly been killed fighting for the so-called Islamic State in the Middle East. Almir Daci, a radicalized imam, had travelled to Syria in 2013 together with his wife and his two underage children to fight alongside Islamist extremists.
His relatives confirmed Daci’s death on Sunday, while circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately clear. His relatives told local media they had received a phone call from Daci’s wife, who had also travelled with him to Syria, that the radicalized former imam was dead. The whereabouts of his wife and his two underage children following reports of his death were also unknown. Albanian authorities have opened a separate investigation against him on charges including incitement of religious hatred and recruitment of persons to commit acts of terrorism.
Almir Daci, the former imam of Leshnica village in Pogradec, has been among the most active amongst Albanian citizens recruited by ISIS and gained notoriety after the publication of a video message last June in which he appeared speaking in Albanian and threatening attacks against his countrymen on behalf of the Islamic State.
Up to a hundred and forty Albanian citizens are feared to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside radical groups including ISIS, while about a third have since returned to Albania and are being monitored by police since they are believed to pose a threat to security.
The peak of Albanian jihadists joining the conflict in the Middle East was registered in the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014, with numbers dwindling ever since to reach almost zero in the first half of 2015, according to a thorough study on radicalism and religious extremism in Albania released last year by the Albanian Institute for International Studies.
