Accused of espionage, Hysri Selimi tells the Court of Appeal he worked for the AKI, not Serbia’s BIA

Hysri Selimi, accused of espionage, has appeared before the Court of Appeal to appeal the first-instance verdict that sentenced him to 6 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Selimi is accused of espionage for cooperating with Serbia’s BIA to gather information about religious radicalism in Kosovo, about KLA leaders, the number of people who took part in ISIS and people who returned to Kosovo from the wars in Syria.

The Special Prosecution has also appealed to the Court of Appeal, asking for the sentence to be increased, while Selimi’s lawyer, Ali Beka, challenged the verdict, asking for his client to be acquitted or the case sent back for retrial, as Kallxo.com reports.

Selimi himself told the Court of Appeal that he worked for the AKI, not for Serbia’s BIA. The accused further said that every move he made in Serbia was made under the orders of AKI officials, to whom he then reported.

He said he also has two witnesses to this, people he worked with who are AKI employees.

“I worked in the interest of my country. I ask the court to hear my testimony: I have worked for the AKI since I came from Syria. I also have proof, because one of the employees I worked with took me to Syria. These two men have been in prison twice; you won’t stay long, you will be free. By agreement they paid my wife half the salary, 50% of the salary I received at the AKI, and I kept silent. This is the truth. I am pleased that I worked for the AKI, but why am I in prison? That is another question. I am completely innocent. I testify and have testified that I worked for my state, for the AKI, willingly and with desire; of course they paid me every month, everything I did was in coordination with them — in the morning they gave me the listening devices and instructed me how to act and what to say,” Selimi said.

Hysri Selimi, accused of espionage for Serbia’s BIA, had been sentenced to six years in prison by the Pristina Court. The verdict was announced by judge Leon Perlaska on 15.06.2026.

Hysri Selimi was arrested by the Kosovo authorities on 06.05.2025, while the Special Prosecution filed the indictment against him on 11.9.2025.

Selimi is accused by Kosovo’s Special Prosecution of having gathered and provided information to Serbia’s BIA about religious radicalism in Kosovo, KLA leaders, the number of people who took part in ISIS and those who returned to Kosovo from the wars in Syria, for various sums of money.

That information, according to the Prosecution, Selimi provided under the direction of Serbian agents, who had also recruited him to work for them. According to the indictment, from November 2009 until his arrest on 06.05.2025, Hysri Selimi was recruited by Serbia’s BIA to help that secret service.

According to the indictment, through his work Selimi helped the BIA gather and send it information about the activity of former KLA members, wartime killings, radicalised persons and the number of participants in the war in Syria.

For this work, according to the Special Prosecution, he was provided with three smartphones and financial means, and was even promised the purchase of a house. According to the indictment, Selimi’s work did not end with gathering information, but went as far as Syria, to join the terrorist organisation ISIS on a mission for Serbia’s BIA.

Selimi’s work for the BIA in ISIS would have been to statistically gather the number of Albanian persons who were in that terrorist organisation and where they operated in Syria. According to the Special Prosecution, Selimi would continue his espionage activity even after returning from Syria, where he had also been convicted for participation in the terrorist organisation ISIS.

According to the indictment, after returning from Syria his meetings would continue with officials of the BIA’s counter-terrorism directorate, in meetings held in different parts of Serbia’s territory, to provide information about radicalised persons and the spread of Wahhabi currents in Kosovo, their influence and the number and functioning of “mesxhids” (small prayer rooms) in Kosovo.

According to the prosecution, Selimi would do all this work for a monthly sum of 700 euros.

To establish that Selimi was meeting BIA agents, the Special Prosecution obtained confirmations from the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI) that the person Selimi was meeting is the BIA’s head of counter-terrorism.

To support the espionage charge, the Special Prosecution also presented as evidence the information report on Selimi’s entries and exits from Kosovo to Serbia and vice versa.

According to the prosecution, Selimi travelled to Serbia by bus, presenting himself as a passenger, while his return to Kosovo was made sometimes on foot, entering the territory illegally, sometimes by bus and sometimes in cars driven by different people.

The trips to Serbia and the return to Kosovo were made within the same day. The Special Prosecution also attached to the indictment evidence obtained through secret measures, showing Selimi meeting BIA officials.

Unaware that he was being watched every minute by the Kosovo authorities, Selimi made his way from his home to the Dheu i Bardhë border crossing. After he was arrested and various items were seized from him, the phones he used were also taken. “Have you heard about this news”, “Is it possible I might have some problem”, “Regardless, I travel as a free man” are some of the quotes the Special Prosecution described in the indictment, evidence documenting his communication with BIA officials. “No, man, what connection do you have, see you tomorrow around 8:30” is the reply received from BIA officials. When one of his seized phones was examined, various photographs were found, such as images during the seizure of weapons in Banjska, videos documenting people performing Friday prayers in one of the mosques in Pristina, and photographs of people he claimed held high positions at the Specialist Court. Attached to the indictment is also a communication between Selimi and BIA persons whose task is securing information about people who frequent mosques, imams, and their family members who had been in Syria. According to the indictment, Selimi provided BIA officials with the names of the people arrested in the case of the murder of sergeant Muhamed Lika. According to the prosecution, all this documented evidence was admitted by the defendant during his interview at the prosecution. The indictment says Selimi fully admitted the prosecution’s claims regarding the criminal offence of espionage, adding that he carried out this activity for financial reasons and had no intention of harming the country’s interest. Selimi told the Prosecution that in 2009, when he began providing information to Serbia’s BIA, he was paid 100 euros for information he had secured from open sources about KLA leaders.