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| Europe |
| Macedonia: Seventeen ethnic Albanians sentenced on terror charges |
| 2008-07-12 |
| (AKI) A Macedonian court sentenced on Friday seventeen ethnic Albanians for terrorism, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski told media, but but did not give any names. Kotevski said the group arrested last November was charged with "terrorism, attacks on police, hostile activities and illegal possession of arms." Four members of the group, one from Albania and three from neighboring Kosovo, were sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail, one man got 12 years and others, who were from Macedonia, got ten years each, Kotevski said. Ethnic Albanians make about 25 per cent of Macedonia's two million population. They rebelled in 2001 demanding greater rights and regional autonomy. The stand-off was solved with the help of international community, but the situation has remained tense in northwestern Albanian populated areas. "At the beginning we believed it was an extremist criminal group, but after discovering a significant quantity of weapons, the prosecutors pressed charges for terrorism," Kotevski said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Albania: the gift that keeps on giving. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 2008-07-12 11:42 |