"13 years for the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa is not enough. Very little. But one thing matters: finally justice spoke for them too."
This is the caption of a post published on Wednesday (September 16) on Facebook, by pages with the names "Dr. Ibrahim Rugova - We miss him”And“With Albania".
The post also contains an image showing Xhemail Mustafa, a murdered activist of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).
What is the truth?
Considering the fact that this publication was made on the day when the verdict was announced against Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi, who were found guilty of war crimes by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers panel, the wording of this post may create the impression that Rexhep Selimi, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison, was also convicted of the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa.
However, the murder of Xhemail Mustafa continues to remain unsolved and is not part of the September 16 verdict.
Until the moment of treatment, the content published on the page "Dr. Ibrahim Rugova – We Miss Him", which has over 267 thousand followers, has received more than 1 thousand 600 likes.
While the post on the "Me Shqiperin" page has over 170 likes. Home in question has over 21 thousand followers.
Hibrid.info has researched through the search engine "Google", with the keywords "xhemail mustafa" (see here). The search results have shown articles that mention November 23, 2000, as the date of death of the former LDK activist (see here and here).
On Wednesday (September 16), the trial panel of the Special Court based in The Hague found former KLA superiors Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi guilty of war crimes.
To verify whether the defendants were found guilty of Xhemail Mustafa, hibrid.info has checked and analyzed the verdict document of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (see here).
The document shows that Thaçi and Krasniqi were sentenced to 25 years in prison each, Veseli to 18 years in prison and Selimi to 13.
So, although the content discussed does not mention the name of Rexhep Selim, the sentence of 13 years in prison refers to him, creating the impression that his sentence is related to the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa.
According to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the period covering the acts for which the judgment was delivered in the Thaçi and co-accused case is from at least April 1998 to 20 June 1999.
Therefore, the claim that Rexhep Selimi or the other defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa is incorrect.
In researching whether there is any evidence or court decision that proves that Rexhep Selimi committed or ordered the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa, hibrid.info has not found any official document that proves such a thing. In the sources reviewed, only media reports were found that raised doubts about his involvement (see here).
Analyze
A post published on Facebook on September 16, with the image of Xhemajl Mustafa and the caption that "13 years for the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa are not enough", creates the impression that Rexhep Selim's 13-year prison sentence refers to his murder.
The verification shows that Rexhep Selimi was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, but the September 16 verdict does not include the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa. According to the verdict document, the crimes examined are related to the war period in Kosovo, while Mustafa was killed on November 23, 2000.
Meanwhile, in the research into the existence of any evidence or court decision that proves Rexhep Selim's involvement in the murder of Xhemajl Mustafa, no official document has been found that proves such a thing. In the sources reviewed, only media reports were found that raised doubts about his involvement.
Therefore, according to its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content in question as "Disinformation" and "Manipulation of facts".
rationale
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.