Professor and political activist from Prizren, Behajdin Allaqi, disappeared without a trace in June 1998. For many years, the circumstances of his disappearance remained unclear.
Të lidhura
None found
On September 16, 2026, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, during the announcement of the first-instance verdict against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, found that Allaqi had been killed after Thaçi and Veseli had taken him handcuffed from the headquarters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Drenoc of Rahovec.
The defense of former president Thaçi has objected to the way the court handled this case, emphasizing that while the conclusions about Allaqi’s murder were made public, the evidence remained confidential.
Who was Behajdin Allaqi?
Behajdin Allaqi was born on April 7, 1963 in Prizren.
For Allaqi’s life and work, his family had narrated to the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo (FDHK), an organization dealing with transitional justice.
According to the family’s account, he had completed the Faculty of Philosophy in Prishtina and lectured sociology and philosophy in Prizren, while he was continuously committed to the freedom and independence of Kosovo.
The account of Behajdin Allaqi’s disappearance is found in the FDHK book, Kosovo Memory Book 1998-2000.
Allaqi belonged to the People’s Movement for the Republic of Kosovo (LPRK) and is considered a martyr of the KLA.
In 2015, the then President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, decorated Allaqi as Hero of Kosovo.
According to the law in Kosovo, this decoration is given to persons who have performed acts of sacrifice and bravery for the freedom and independence of Kosovo.
Radio Free Europe tried to contact members of the Allaqi family for an interview, but received no response to any of the messages sent.
1993: The ‘dispute’ with Thaçi and Syla
According to the summary of the Specialist Chambers’ verdict, Allaqi had had a ‘serious dispute with Thaçi and Azem Syla’ in 1993, who accused him of bringing into the LPRK a person they suspected of being a Serbian spy.
The trial panel also found that, before his disappearance in 1998, Allaqi was under surveillance by the KLA intelligence service and that Thaçi and Veseli had requested to be notified of his presence at the KLA headquarters in Drenoc.
June 11, 1998: Allaqi was seen for the last time
According to the account of his wife, Nazmije Allaqi, in the ‘Kosovo Memory Book 1998-2000’, a publication of the Humanitarian Law Center that documents persons killed and disappeared during the war, Allaqi was last seen on June 11, 1998 in Prizren.
She had said that Behajdin Allaqi had gone towards the KLA headquarters in the village of Drenoc in Rahovec and from there had set off for the KLA General Headquarters, which at that time was located in the Drenica area.
After this date, there are no public records that Allaqi was seen alive.
What did the Special Court find?
According to the summary of the verdict of September 16, 2026, Allaqi had gone to the headquarters in Drenoc around June 11, 1998. The trial panel found that Thaçi and Veseli had arrived later and had taken Allaqi handcuffed.
Allaqi was never seen again, and the trial panel concluded that he had been killed.
The summary of the verdict does not make public all the evidence on which this finding was based.
November 1, 1998: The KLA communiqué
On November 1, 1998, the KLA General Headquarters published Communiqué No. 61, which stated that Behajdin Allaqi had fallen as a martyr in battle. The Specialist Chambers trial panel described this communiqué as an attempt to cover up what had happened to Allaqi.
According to the court, after the war Thaçi, Veseli and Azem Syla also tried to convince Allaqi’s family, through bribes and promises, to give up seeking justice. The court said the family had refused these offers.
The verdict is of the first instance and can be appealed.
Documented data after the war
In the early 2000s, according to a document published in the media after the Specialist Chambers verdict, Nazmije Allaqi had reportedly reported to UNMIK bodies that her husband had been ‘taken by Serbian police’.
In a response to Radio Free Europe, UNMIK did not comment on the authenticity of the document, saying it is limited in what it can say, ‘given the transfer of competencies and files’ to subsequent authorities, international and local.
Nazmije Allaqi had told researchers of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo (FDHK) that ‘Selim Krasniqi and Bedri Zyberaj had knowledge of the abduction [of Allaqi]’.
Radio Free Europe contacted Krasniqi and Zyberaj, both former KLA members, regarding the case. Krasniqi briefly said he has no knowledge, while until the publication of this article, Radio Free Europe has not been able to get a comment from Zyberaj.
The account in the book ‘Syri i Shqiponjës’ (Eye of the Eagle)
The chapter on the disappearance of Behajdin Allaqi in the book ‘Syri i Shqiponjës’ by Ilaz Kadolli.
The Allaqi case is also mentioned in the book ‘Syri i Shqiponjës’ by former KLA member Ilaz Kadolli.
In the book, Allaqi’s disappearance is described as ‘liquidation without trial’, for which, according to the author, ‘the KLA General Headquarters bears political, moral and legal responsibility’.
Kadolli’s book was accepted as evidence at the request of the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, according to a 2025 decision of the Specialist Chambers.
However, from public documents it is not clear whether the part of the book that deals with the Allaqi case was among the materials on which the trial panel specifically relied for its findings on the murder.
Asked whether he had been invited to testify about the Allaqi case, Kadolli told Radio Free Europe that he had refused to testify ‘due to health condition’.
The chapter on the disappearance of Behajdin Allaqi in the book ‘Syri i Shqiponjës’ by Ilaz Kadolli.
What does the defense say?
Thaçi’s lawyer, Lluka Mishetiq, wrote on the social platform X that the trial panel had publicly linked his client with the murder of Allaqi, even though it had previously ordered all parties not to discuss the Allaqi matter in public court sessions.
‘The trial panel publicly found Thaçi guilty of a murder, while at the same time keeping the evidence on which it based this conclusion away from public scrutiny. Thaçi would welcome such public scrutiny of the evidence,’ Mishetiq said on September 17, a day after the verdict in The Hague.
Thaçi’s other lawyer, Pierre-Richard Prosper, in an interview on Klan Kosova television, objected to the publication of the conclusions without the information supporting them. He said the defense had information and questions about the case, but was not allowed to discuss them publicly.
Asked by Radio Free Europe about the Allaqi case, the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague said it ‘will not comment on materials that have not been made public’.
Was Allaqi’s disappearance ever investigated in Kosovo?
After the war in Kosovo, in the early 2000s, UNMIK had full executive and judicial powers.
This mission has not commented on the Allaqi case, and whether it initiated investigations into it while it was competent, namely until 2008 when Kosovo declared independence.
‘UNMIK’s previous files regarding investigations and prosecutions for criminal matters were transferred to EULEX [the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo] in 2008, and may have subsequently been transferred to Kosovo’s competent authorities. UNMIK does not comment on individual cases that are subject to judicial proceedings before independent courts,’ says UNMIK’s response to Radio Free Europe.
On the other hand, neither EULEX, which took over powers after UNMIK, commented on whether it ever handled the Allaqi case.
‘Due to the end of EULEX’s executive mandate in the justice system in 2018, the cases and files handled by EULEX were handed over to Kosovo’s authorities,’ says this mission’s response to Radio Free Europe.
Nor has the Kosovo Special Prosecution responded as to whether there have ever been investigations within Kosovo’s legal system regarding the case of Behajdin Allaqi, before it was addressed in The Hague.
