The information portal "nacionale.com" published yesterday (August 23) an article titled "Land, cars, apartments and cash: This is the wealth of the 10 arrested for corruption."
The article concerns allegations of corruption against several officials, who, in the title of this article, are alleged to have been arrested.
However, hibrid.info has verified that an indictment has been filed against the corruption suspects, but there is no arrest warrant, by the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office.
Link to the article published on "nacionale.com":
The same article was also published on the portal “veriu.info”. (see here)
After research conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that the title of the article published by "nacionale.com" incorrectly claimed that it was about officials arrested for corruption.
Hibrid.info has found the announcement of the Special Prosecution of Kosovo, obtained from several print media, which indicates the filing of indictments for persons suspected of being involved in corruption. (see here, here and here)
Also, in the articles published by these media, it becomes clear that this is about filing indictments against ten official persons, against whom there is still no arrest warrant, as erroneously claimed in the title of the "nacionale.com" article.
Full announcement from the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office:
The Special Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kosovo (PSRK) filed today an indictment in the Basic Court in Pristina - Special Department, against ten (10) defendants with the initials BRVBZAJAEMBDNPGMIB and MG
The Special Prosecutor's Office announces that the aforementioned defendants in the capacity of official persons, in complicity using official duties and authority, as well as, exceeding their legal powers, intentionally acted in violation of the Law on Procurement, the Law on Budget Appropriations of 2019 , the Law on public finance management and responsibilities, as well as with other legal and sub-legal acts.
With these actions, the defendants BRVBZAJAEMBDNPGMIB and MG in co-commitment have committed the criminal offense "Misuse of official position or authority", sanctioned by article 414 paragraph 2, related 31 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo.
Meanwhile, the defendant VB is also accused of the criminal offense of "Forgery of an official document", from article 427 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kosovo.
Analyze:
The information portal "nacionale.com" has published an article in the title of which it is claimed that officials suspected of corruption have been arrested.
But based on the announcement of the Special Prosecution of Kosovo and several print media outlets, it is understood that an indictment has been filed against these individuals.
Therefore, based on the working methodology, hibrid.info evaluates this article as "Error".
Reasoning:
The "Error" rating is given to media reports in which the media editorial staff made a mistake by publishing incorrect information or broadcasting unverified news from another source, without the clear intention of misinforming the public.