Artan Hajrizi, the name and photo published by the Serbian authorities as a suspect in the murder of a policeman in Serbia, is the brother of Faton Hajrizi who escaped from prison in Kosovo, family sources confirmed.
According to the Serbian authorities, a policeman was killed in Loznica – a city in the west of Serbia, on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) – in the early hours of Thursday morning, while another was injured.
The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the suspect’s passport, issued by the Kosovo authorities in the name “Artan Hajziri” (1991), and a German identity document were found at the scene.
Most likely, the Serbian authorities spelled his last name incorrectly.
Journalists analyzed some of Artan Hajrizi’s numerous profiles on social networks that confirm his relationship with Faton Hajrizi.
Journalists also spoke with family sources who confirmed that Artan and Faton are brothers. This family source claims that “Artan is in Germany and that he said today that the documents are not in his apartment,“ it was said yesterday.
“Artan has no knowledge [about this]. He lost his passport,” the source said. Journalists were unable to establish contact with Artan until the publication of this article.
Artan Hajrizi spoke publicly on Thursday for the newspaper Insajderi with a video link. Artani claims that he told the police in Germany that his brother visited him for a few hours and stole his identification documents.
“He left two days ago. I reported the documents as lost. I’m not guilty of this,” Artani said in the video. He added that he had no contact with his brother since then.
Faton Hajrizi, convicted of several crimes in Kosovo, escaped a few days ago from Smrekovnica prison in Kosovo. He has a history of frequent escapes from Kosovo prisons.
Hajrizi was originally convicted in January 2000 for the murder of a Russian soldier in the center of Srbica (Skenderaj), when he was only 15 years old. He was sentenced to six years in prison for this murder, Radio Free Europe reports.
