Scandal with the privatization of public land in Kosovo, were sold at the price of a coffee

Sejdi Hoxha during the statement for the privatizers of public enterprises

 Thousands of hectares of publicly owned land in Kosovo are suspected to have been privatized over the years for the price of a coffee.

The Parliamentary Commission has started investigating the whole process. Four years ago there were arrests of MPs, but the trial never ended.

Five thousand hectares of public property land has been sold at a price of one euro per hectare (dynym), by the Privatization Agency of Kosovo.

Blerim Rexha, former chairman of the PAK Board in 2013, said days ago, before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the privatization process, that this was one of the reasons for his resignation.

The commission was set up in July at the initiative of the opposition PDK party, which has been in power for more than a decade, according to Euronews Albania.

 "We are convinced that the public opinion will be surprised when it discovers that the biggest privatizers of public or socially-owned enterprises are precisely those people who have criticized the privatization process the most in public," said Sejdi Hoxha., PDK MP.

Former ministers, board directors, and executive directors of the Privatization Board, as well as UNMIK representatives who have been part of the KPA board, have been invited to interview this commission. Former Economy and Finance Minister Ali Sadriu appeared before the commission on Monday, saying that it was the Americans, however, who made it possible to escape the biggest degradation of privatization.

 "But if it were not for the American allies I had within the Ministry of Finance to help me with extra experts, there would certainly have been many omissions. They (the internationals on board) have been experienced people. They had made privatizations in Southeast Europe, but in the end they came from Belgrade with a special sympathy for them (Serbia). So today I am open-faced, and Ali believes that today he is calm in the grave where he is ",  said Ali Sadriu, Former Minister of Economy and Finance

However, in addition to land, public property that has been sold at terribly low prices, there are other important objects worth millions of euros, which have remained entangled in lawsuits as a result of suspicions of corruption during the privatization process.

Suspicions of criminalized privatization of public property are not new.

In 2016, 30 people were arrested and charged. Among them is Azem Syla, at that time a PDK MP.

According to the indictment, members of this organized criminal group cooperated to deprive Kosovo of public property through criminal activities, including falsification of decisions and other official documents, fraud, and corrupt practices.