A million euro property for civil society purchased with the help of Haki Abazi; Jeta Xharra and Faik Ispahiu in Court accused of usurping the Board

Gazeta Express

03/07/2020 21:14

The Basic Court of Pristina today held a hearing against Jeta Xharra and Dajana Berisha after the lawsuit filed against them by Astrit Istrefi, Burim Ejupi and Visar Azemi regarding a dispute related to the Foundation “Civil Society House SHC”, an NGO that they had co-founded.

However, no decision was taken at the hearing regarding the plaintiffs’ request for an interim measure, the defense lawyer Kushtrim Palushi confirmed to Gazeta Express.

He said the court had asked the two parties for additional evidence, adding that the defendants had insisted on acting in accordance with the law when they dismissed Istrefi, Ejupi and Azem from the Foundation’s Board and replaced them with Faik Ispahiu, Luan Dalipi, and Fatos Lajçi.

Asrit Istrefi, Ejupi, Azemi, Xharra and Berisha in 2017 came together to establish the Foundation “Civil Society House-SHC”. All five were appointed members of the Board, while they were also assisted by Haki Abazi (senior Vetevendosje official and Deputy Minister in Albin Kurti’s government), who had managed to get a donation of 1 million euros from the New-York based Rockfeller Brothers Fund.

The Court is expected to give a final verdict on what happened next, as Istrefi, Ejupi and Azemi have filed a lawsuit against Xharra and Berisha, claiming that Xharra and Berisha illegally held a meeting where they fired them from the board and replaced them with Ispahiu, Lajçi and Dalipi (chief of staff of the Kurti government). The plaintiffs have also filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Public Administration, as the Department for NGOs has updated the data of the Foundation with the changes made by the meeting between Xharra, Berisha and Abazi.

The three of them fear that Xharra, along with Berisha, may embezzle another property of the Civil Society House Foundation to the organizations they lead, so they have asked the Court to dismiss the decisions of 5 August, 2019, and restrict the activities of the members of the Foundation, by not allowing any movement that may result in the alienation of the property or the dissolution of the Foundation. /GazetaExpress/