Driton Gashi, Chief of Kosovo Intelligence Agency | Photo: Kallxo.com

BIRN has learned that an indictment for misuse of office against Driton Gashi was withdrawn only days before he was appointed to head the intelligence agency by President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Isa Mustafa on Wednesday .

On February 3, the Pristina Basic Court dismissed an indictment filed in May 2016 against Gashi, then the General Secretary at the Interior Ministry.

The indictment charged Gashi with exceeding his official competences by transferring a civil service employee to another position in presumed contradiction to the Law on State Administration.

BIRN has seen the court decision, which reads that the prosecutor, Feti Tunuzliu, withdrew the indictment on the basis of a lack of evidence.

“On February 1, 2017, the prosecutor sent the court the [dismissal] motion … on the grounds that there is no sufficient evidence to support suspicions that the defendant committed the act [of misuse of his position],” the decision of the Pristina Basic Court reads.

The indictment was filed by Luan Ismajli, the head of the Division for Civil Aviation Security in the Interior Ministry, who Gashi transferred to being head of Division for Civil Registration.

The prosecution said this transfer was prohibited under the regulations on the civil service because the injured party was given a more disadvantageous position than his previous one and the transfer adversely affected his career.

Gashi’s appointment on Wednesday came after the agency’s former director, Agron Selimaj, resigned, citing family reasons.

Selimaj suddenly resigned on January 27, amid growing tension between Kosovo and Serbia, which soared in mid-January when Serbia sent a train painted in the colours of the Serbian flag and bearing the words “Kosovo is Serbian” in 21 languages from Belgrade to the northern, Serb-run part of the town of Mitrovica.

“I believe now is the time for me and my family to start a new chapter in our lives,” Selimaj wrote in his resignation letter sent to Thaci and Mustafa.

His resignation has been shrouded in suspicion and the head of the parliamentary committee overseeing Kosovo’s intelligence agency has called on the President or Prime Minister to explain the sudden resignation.