On his way back from Austria to Kosovo, Besnik Mehaj: Serbian police planted a shell casing in our car, demanded money for our release

News

Express newspaper

06/05/2026 14:45

Besnik Mahaj was faced with an unexpected and not at all desirable situation while arriving in Kosovo.

Together with his nephew, he made his way from Austria to Kosovo, stopping for a few hours in the territory of Subotica, Serbia.

In a statement to IndeksOnline, Mahaj revealed that he and his nephew were trapped by the Serbian police, just to get money from them.

"They investigated that we had money with us, even though we didn't mention it. They stopped us and told us that they had to search the car. We were in a car with the license plates of the Republic of Kosovo. Then, they returned with a bullet casing in it. "We found this under the chair, whose is it?" they told us. They took us and put us inside, and started to scare us and tell us everything.

I know that they put the bullet casings themselves, to scare us and create trouble for us. My nephew was scared. They scared him, they told him "you will get 2 to 8 years in prison". They constantly scared my nephew, saying that the police from Belgrade would deal with him directly, while they did not allow me to speak. I was not scared because every time they took money from me; sometimes 20, sometimes 30, sometimes 50 euros" declared Mahaj.

According to him, three Serbian police officers told him to go, while his nephew would initially be escorted to the station. Unless they paid a large sum of money, they would be released.

Mahaj stated that they were forced to pay 400 euros to each of the police officers so that they would not be arrested, sent to prison, and mistreated.

"They initially released me, and they said they would send my nephew to prison tonight. I told them I could give them 500 euros, just release my son. My nephew said, 'I'll give you 1000 euros, release me.' They consulted and came and asked for 1200 euros. We gave them 1200 euros and they let us go. They didn't search us further or confiscate anything," Mahaj declared.

Although he had traveled through Serbia before, this had never happened to him before. Mahaj wanted to advise everyone not to pass through Serbian territory, as their intentions are to psychologically and physically abuse Albanians.