The Kosovo prime minister, Hashim Thaci, has again rejected accusations of criminal activity and says neither he nor any member of his family have money in Switzerland.
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In an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, the Kosovo leader said the way charges had been laid against him by Swiss senator Dick Marty reminded him of the “propaganda of [Nazi] Joseph Goebbels”.
Thaci said Marty’s report, which was published as part of a Council of Europe investigation, “is a document of a political act of revenge. It includes neither facts or evidence”.
On December 16 Marty accused Thaci of heading a criminal organisation during the Kosovo Albanian guerrilla war against Serbia in the late 1990s – a ring that allegedly assassinated opponents and trafficked in drugs as well as organs harvested from murdered Serbs.
However the Kosovo leader said neither the United Nations administration nor the European Union mission to Kosovo had found any wrongdoing, and reiterated that he welcomed further investigations.
The Kosovo leader said the accusations that he had Swiss bank accounts came from the Serbian media which were part of attempts to discredit Kosovo.
Thaci said that Marty’s intentions were malicious to damage Kosovo since he has always opposed Kosovo’s independence.
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On February 17, 2008, the former Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence. The Swiss government was one of the first to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. Ethnic Albanians make up 92 per cent of the population of 2.2 million, but Serbs still dominate the north of the country.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.