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Arrested for the first time in 2000 for the murder of a Russian soldier, Faton Hajrizi from the Municipality of Skenderaj, would turn into a person with a long criminal history and fame for many escapes from Kosovo prisons.
For the last time he escaped from an open prison in Kosovo on July 6, 2024. A few days later he became a suspect in the murder of a policeman in Serbia and was killed while on the run by the Serbian authorities. on July 19.
At the time of his last escape from Kosovo, Faton Hajrizi was described as a disciplined prisoner who had even earned the right to go home on weekends.
From murders to stealing phones - What was Faton Hajrizi accused of?
"He grew up in good family circumstances and did well until the time of the war."
This was one of the descriptive sentences for the life story of Faton Hajrizi, from the village of Klinë e Ulët in Skenderaj, in a court document from 2001.
This document is the earliest in Hajrizi's criminal history, which began in early 2000, a few months after the end of the war between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1999.
According to the documents obtained by Radio Free Europe from the Courts of Kosovo, he was convicted at least three times by two different courts for crimes related to murder, attempted murder, theft and robbery.
Faton Hajrizi is best known for killing a Russian soldier of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, on February 29, 2000. At that time, he was 15 years old.
As described in a decision of the District Court in Mitrovica, the murder took place in one of Skenderaj's squares, after Hajrizi first took the soldier's weapon and then wounded him.
The soldier with the initials IK subsequently died on March 2 of that year from his injuries.
Hajrizi was detained in various detention centers since the beginning of 2000, while with a decision of March 2001, he was sentenced to an "educational measure" of one to five years, which would be precisely decided later.
With this measure, he would be sent to an "Education Center" and "would be under the supervision of a professional team."
It is not known where exactly Hajrizi was sent after this decision.
But, in several interviews that he had given in recent months to the media of Kosovo, he claims that he was continuously sent to the Correctional Center together with adults and not with minors, which category he belonged to at that time. Except for the killing of the soldier, in the 2001 ruling, Hajrizi was convicted for one case of attempted murder, three cases of theft, mainly of car parts, and two cases of misuse of cars (using them without permission).
All these crimes, according to the court, were mainly committed from the beginning of 2000 to the beginning of 2001, in Skenderaj, Drenas, Pristina and South Mitrovica.
The second judicial decision for Faton Hajrizi was taken again by the then District Court in Mitrovica, on January 24, 2008.
This time he was convicted of two crimes of armed robbery, which according to the court, he committed in collaboration with someone else with the initials BB, in 2006, in Skenderaj.
In these robberies, they took money, phones, cigarettes and phone chargers.
Hajrizi was also sentenced for possession of weapons without a permit.
He was sentenced to six years in prison and his weapons were confiscated.
At the time of sentencing, he had been in custody since May 2006.
The Basic Court in Pristina told Radio Evropa e Lirë that Faton Hajrizi was also convicted by this court in 2019, for attempted murder.
This time he was sentenced to one year in prison.
REL has not managed to provide data from other local courts regarding possible criminal cases or punishments of Faton Hajrizi.
"From the window of the toilet and the fan" - the escapes of Faton Hajrizi
Hajrizi is believed to have escaped about 9 times from Kosovo's correctional institutions, although the Kosovo Correctional Service (SKK) has not confirmed the exact number. He even stated to the media in Kosovo that he also escaped from the American military base in Kosovo, Bondsteel.
The SKK had said that until the time of his escape, in July 2024, Faton Hajrizi had served 17 years and 5 months of his prison sentence, while he still had 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment left.
The year 2000
Shortly after being imprisoned for the first time, Hajrizi managed to escape from the place where he was being held.
Most of his escapes, at least three or four, took place around 2000, as described by official documents and by Hajrizi himself in media interviews.
"I was only treated as a minor in court, not in prisons", said Hajrizi in an interview for the show "Oath of Justice", broadcast on Kohavision. According to him, he had made his first escape from the Detention Center in Northern Mitrovica. around 5 a.m., climbing out of the toilet window.
In other escapes, Hajrizi claimed to have cut the shutters with saws smuggled from abroad, as well as to have used the fan as an exit.
The District Court in North Mitrovica itself, in the ruling on his conviction in 2001, mentions that the 15-year-old at that time had escaped once from the Detention Center in Mitrovica in March 2000 and another time in November of that year. in the Detention Center in Skenderaj.
Although it does not specify the number, the decision also states that "the detainee made efforts and managed to escape from prison several times".
Year 2005
Another escape of Faton Hajrizi is described in a US State Department report.
According to this report, Hajrizi had escaped from Peja prison in August 2005 and was then captured again in October 2006.
"He remained in custody at the end of the year (2006)," the report states.
Year 2007
Together with six other people, Faton Hajrizi had also escaped from Dubrava Prison in Istog.
According to media reports at the time, "after passing the prison fences, the seven prisoners were met by other people, who started shooting at the prison guards."
Year 2012
This time in the Detention Center in Prizren, Faton Hajrizi escaped during his daily walk.
According to the reports, he had crossed the wall of the courtyard, "holding on to a rainwater gutter and through several circles of barbed wire, he jumped from the high wall several meters".
"Three shots from the guard's 'Glock 19' pistol alerted the situation and very quickly the guards and the police started chasing the fugitives," Hazir Berisha, spokesman for the regional police in Prizren, had stated at the time for the medium Kallxo.com.
The year 2024
At least in the last months, Faton Hajrizi was staying in the "open type" prison in Smrekonica, Vushtrri, which means in low security measures.
According to SKK officials, he had used the right to go home several times during the weekend and had even applied to do work outside the correctional institutions.
His escape took place on July 6 around 1 am.
"The correctional officers have been temporarily suspended until the end of the investigation, as it is suspected that they did not notice the departure of the convict in time through the monitoring of the cameras", it was said in the communiqué of the SCK. His escape then caused a stir on social networks after Hajrizi posted videos mainly on the TikTok platform, challenging the institutions that were looking for him.
"You can't catch me", was the dominant message in the video.
The killing of the policeman in Serbia and the last escape of Hajrizi
After the last escape on July 6, Hajrizi's whereabouts were not known for a while. His name started to be mentioned again on July 18, when Serbia reported the killing of a police officer in the western city of Lloznica. According to initial suspicions, the glover had fled, while the documents of a person named Artan Hajrizi were found at the scene.
It was later learned that Artan was Faton's brother, who came from Germany claiming that his brother had stolen his documents to use for escape.
As a murder suspect, Fatoni was wanted by the Serbian authorities for several hours, until the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that he had been killed while fleeing from the Police.
However, the Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Dacic, said that the Serbian authorities will ask Germany to extradite his brother, Artan Hajrizi, who, according to him, is suspected of being an accomplice in this case./REL
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