An image is published showing Rifat Jashari, the brother of Adem Jashari, the commander and one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), while the image claims that he has made a statement regarding the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama.
The image reads: "Rifat Jashari: Edi Rama will pay dearly for opening the Serbian consulate in Albanian lands while Kosovo is facing the discovery of mass graves from the Serbian genocide".
This content was published on August 4 on Facebook by the page “Union of Albanians in Europe – European Union of Albanians".
What's wrong with this content?
After verification conducted by hibrid.info, no reliable source was found that would confirm that Rifat Jashari made this statement.
FACTS
Hibrid.info initially verified whether Rifat Jashari has identifiable social media accounts, through which it could be confirmed whether the statement was published by him. From the search conducted, no verified or reliable social media accounts of his were found.
A search was then conducted using the Google search engine, using the full text of the alleged statement. The search results did not indicate that this statement was published by any reliable media or other credible source (see here).
Based on these verifications, there is no evidence that Rifat Jashari made the statement shown in the image.
This content has been handled by hibrid.info due to its spread on Facebook. As of the publication of this article, the post had received over 1,300 reactions, 135 comments and 231 shares. (see photo below).
This is not the first time that the figure of Rifat Jashari has been misused to create and spread misinformation. Hibrid.info has previously covered eight other misinformation pieces related to him. (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).
Analyze
An image published on Facebook claims that Rifat Jashari has made a threatening statement against Edi Rama.
However, hibrid.info has not found any reliable source confirming this statement, while Jashari's figure has been used in misinformation content before.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fake News".
rationale
The “Fake News” rating is given to informational content that is entirely fabricated or that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be defined as having been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.