-
By:
Ardit Kika
- 13 January 2026 09:11
- Share to:
Update 10:15 - The initial hearing in the "state reserves" case, in which the acting Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Rozeta Hajdari, as well as Irfan Lipovica, Hafiz Gara and Ridvan Muharremi, are accused, has been closed to the public.
Judge Avni Syla closed the hearing to the public in the name of preserving classified information. He warned everyone that if they reveal confidential information to the public during the trial, they will be held accountable.
He said he would issue a special ruling regarding this issue.
Lawyers demand declassification of state reserves file
Update 10:05 - The initial hearing in the state reserve scandal case has begun. Lawyers are opposing the continuation of the hearing, arguing that the documents are classified and that they, as lawyers, do not have the right to access them.
also
Hajdari on "state reserves": I feel innocent, it is a biased process
At the initial hearing, Judge Avni Syla asked the parties whether they wanted to continue with open or closed sessions.
They opposed the continuation of the initial review on the grounds that they had not received the prosecution file.
Attorney Fehim Alaj, who defends the accused Irfan Lipovica, said that he has received a response from the Agency for the Protection of Classified Information and that he cannot access classified documents that are in the file. He said that the entire file is classified.
"The entire file is classified, we are not dealing with words or sentences. We as lawyers must be careful when we have information received from AMIK for which the law on the protection of classified information, article 2 of this law clarifies that this law is applied by all public institutions that exercise executive, legislative, judicial powers and for legal and natural persons... I propose to the court to oblige the special prosecutor's office to initiate the procedure for declassification of the state reserve file and then decide whether the sessions will be held open or closed," he declared.
Minister Rozeta Hajdari's lawyer, Florent Larifaj, said that lawyers put themselves at risk of criminal liability if they receive classified documents. He said that they should neither touch nor see them.
Lawyer Mahmut Halimi, who is defending Ridvan Mauhrremi, said that they have refused to receive the case files due to the very well-founded existence that he could end up facing criminal liability for violating official secrecy.
also
Indictment against former minister Rozeta Hajdari confirmed
Hajdari and others appear in court regarding the “State Reserves” case
Acting Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Rozeta Hajdari, and three other defendants appeared before the court on Tuesday in connection with the "State Reserves" case.
The session will start from 09:30.
The initial hearing was once scheduled for December 10, but it failed after Hajdari failed to appear in court, which was justified by the fact that he did not receive a summons from the court.
Based on the SPRK indictment, the defendants Rozeta Hajdari in the capacity of Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Irfan Lipovica as Deputy Secretary and Hafiz Gara in the position of Director of the Department of State Reserves, in violation of the Law on Public Procurement, avoiding the competition process, through a negotiation procedure had negotiated and then signed a contract with the Turkish company "Yafe Turizm Indaat Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi" headquartered in Bursa, Turkey, for the purchase of 10 thousand tons of wheat at a price of 4,834,778.00 euros. It states that the price for the purchase of wheat was contracted 193.48 euros higher than the average market price.
also
Indictment against Hajdari and others for state reserves confirmed
The indictment further states that defendants Hajdari, Lipovica and Gara also negotiated and signed a contract with the company "Xanto SP. ZO. O" based in Gdynia, Poland, for the purchase of 200 thousand liters of oil and 120 thousand kilograms of sugar. However, despite the payment made, the goods were never received.
Hajdari, Lipovica, and Gara are accused of revealing official secrets by providing Muharrem with information about the location of the storage of wheat as a state reserve commodity.
Hajdari on "state reserves": I feel innocent, it is a biased process
Acting Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Rozeta Hajdari, who is accused of the state reserves issue, has said that she feels completely innocent. She has described the process against her as biased.
"I feel completely innocent because it is a biased process that violates every legal procedure, being in violation of the law on state reserves and the law on the protection of classified information, has initiated this indictment against me," she said after the initial hearing.
She even insists that they acted correctly with the issue of state reserves, but says that the violations are being committed by the Special Prosecution Office.
"The most important thing I want to emphasize is that the citizens of Kosovo do not need to worry about consolidating the state reserve that we have increased in the Kurti 2 Government, many times over in the most difficult time when the state reserve was unconsolidated and not in function of responding to citizens. At a time when the borders were closed with the outbreak of war in Ukraine and in the most difficult time, when there were no exports of basic products in our country. So, basic products, vital for the livelihood of our citizens. In this difficult time we secured and consolidated the state reserve. How important it is to mention that for this process that is extremely important for our citizens, for the security of our people, the prosecution nevertheless violated the law, as I have emphasized earlier despite the fact that we have had and are in legal proceedings with operators who have not fulfilled their obligations and there is an open legal process with these operators. The Special Prosecution is completely ignoring the law, and is continuing without respecting the procedures of the law on state reserves and information classified," she added.
She further insisted that they would prove that the actions taken against her were illegal.
Mahmut Halimi, the lawyer for the other defendant in this case, Ridvan Muharremi, said that during the proceedings "an unprecedented situation in judicial practice in Kosovo" occurred.
He stated that the court forced the defense attorneys to file objections to the indictment without having the case files available, calling this a "nonsense" case.
"Today something happened that is never known in judicial practice in the courts of Kosovo, the court forced us to file an objection against the indictment without case files, it is a nonsensical case. Regarding other issues, I had asked for your understanding. We have no way of declaring ourselves without having the case files. How can we declare ourselves guilty when there are no case files," he said.
