Special Prosecution indicts Environment Ministry official, suspected of causing the state over €15.7 million in damage

The Special Prosecution of the Republic of Kosovo has filed an indictment against Environment Ministry official Naser Hafizi on three criminal charges, while a separate indictment has been filed against a person with the initials I.B. for unauthorized possession of weapons.

According to the Special Prosecution’s announcement, Hafizi is charged with the criminal offenses of “Abuse of official position or authority,” “Money laundering” and “Failure to report or false reporting of assets, income, gifts, other material benefit or financial obligations.”

According to the indictment, N.H., during the period 2021–2023, in his capacity as an official at the Ministry of Environment, is suspected of having exceeded his legal powers and failed to carry out his official duties.

The prosecution claims that his actions were intended to enable unlawful material benefits for economic operators, including water bottlers, causing, according to the indictment, damage to the state budget in the amount of 15 million 752 thousand 486 euros and 7 cents.

“The defendant is accused of not sending all economic operators for assessment to the Ministerial Working Group. And after receiving the report from this group, N.H. deliberately selected the operators into three groups in order to favor them, enabling their financial obligations to be determined on the basis of their unverified reports,” the Special Prosecution’s announcement says.

Also, according to the indictment, Hafizi did not apply the Working Group’s assessments in determining the economic operators’ debts and is suspected of having reduced their financial obligations for water use.

In the other case, the Special Prosecution has filed an indictment against I.B. for the criminal offense of “Unauthorized ownership, control or possession of weapons.”

The Special Prosecution provided no further details about the case against I.B., Telegrafi reports.