Relative recounts the moments after imam’s killing in Zlipotok: “Go check on the imam, my son has done a terrible thing”

Last night shook the village of Zlipotok in Dragash, where the imam of this village, Gazmend Terhovci, was stabbed to death near the door of his home by a fellow villager.

Benjamin, the son of imam Gazmend’s uncle, said the clashes between them were not new and that there had also been problems about a year and a half ago. According to him, last night’s incident escalated because of a conflict related to livestock feed.

“A year, a year and a half ago, the imam had problems with this monster. He threatened the imam, saying they would come to the house here with a machine gun, and the imam reported him to the police several times, but they never opened a single case over it. I don’t believe he is of sound mind. Only a monster could do something like that. Yes, the problem was over hay. The imam had mowed a meadow that belongs to neither him nor that man, because no one lives here, so we can mow it. No one uses the hay, we use it. And when the imam mowed it, he came and said, ‘the hay is mine.’ And the imam said, ‘it’s no problem, take the hay, there’s no need to have a problem over hay,’” Benjamin said.

He also said that shortly before the attack, the murder suspect had been with his father at a cafe near the scene. According to his account, the two then went to the imam supposedly to talk, while later the son allegedly attacked him from behind with a knife, stabbing him 15-16 times in the back.

“The son and the father left the cafe together. Then they came here to the imam. As people, we go to the imam if we have a problem to talk about, we speak with the imam, the imam doesn’t close the door, not even at 3 o’clock, you can come to the imam. And he came. After two minutes only the father went back to the cafe again and said, ‘Go check on the imam, my son has done a terrible thing. See what has happened.’ When the doctor and the people from the cafe came, the imam here… he stabbed him 15-16 times in the back with a knife… Terror,” Benjamin told kp.

In this case, police have arrested the murder suspect, as well as his father. The latter is suspected of the criminal offense of “failure to provide assistance.”

The suspect in the imam’s killing was arrested today. The police spokesperson for the Prizren region, Shaqir Bytyqi, said that several police units were engaged in locating and detaining him.

“After intensive operational-investigative actions undertaken continuously by the Kosovo Police, the suspect in the murder case in the village of Zlipotok, Dragash, was located and arrested. Various police units were engaged in the operation to locate and arrest the suspect, including the use of a drone for aerial surveillance as well as the K-9 police unit,” Bytyqi said.