KOSOVO: KOSOVO SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FILES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000047

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR, EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, S/WCI AND G/TIP, NSC FOR
BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE
STEGER, OPDAT FOR ACKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK KV
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: KOSOVO SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FILES
GROUNDBREAKING INDICTMENT IN TRAFFICKING CASE

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On January 2, the U.S.-supported Kosovo
Special Prosecutor's Office (KSPO) filed an indictment in the
Peja District Court against three Kosovo Albanian men and
three Moldovan women for human trafficking, facilitating
prostitution, and money laundering. This groundbreaking
indictment is the result of an eight-month investigation into
human trafficking rings in Gjakova, and is the first ever in
Kosovo to charge a client, to charge Moldovan women as
recruiters, and to include money laundering in a human
trafficking case. Prosecutor Raze Loshaj hopes to
successfully prosecute the case so it can serve as a model
for future human trafficking prosecutions. END SUMMARY.

KSPO files groundbreaking human trafficking indictment


2. (SBU) On January 2, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office
(KSPO) filed a groundbreaking indictment in the Peja District
Court charging Kosovo Albanian male cousins Pal and
Aleksander Pitaqi, the owners and operators of Club "AS" and
Club West Park in Gjakova, with facilitating prostitution and
organizing a human trafficking ring. The indictment also
charges Moldovan females Veronica Dragan, Elena Pisaru and
Tatiana Ciuvagu as recruiters and co-perpetrators for
supporting the recruitment of new victims from Moldova.
Dragan, Pisaru and Ciuvagu allegedly sent Moldovan victims
employment contracts for work as dancers or waitresses, as
well as money for their airline tickets to Kosovo. According
to Loshaj, they also traveled to Moldova to receive money and
contracts and escort victims back to Pristina. The
indictment also charges Aleksander Pitaqi with money
laundering and Dragan, Pislaru and Ciuvagu as
co-perpetrators. Finally, it charges Uka Kolaj, a client of
the Pitaqis, with facilitating prostitution. If found
guilty, Aleksander Pitaqi could face up to 35 years in
prison, Pal Pitaqi up to 25 years, Kolaj up to five years,
and Dragan, Pislaru and Ciuvagu up to 26 years. Loshaj, who
has received intensive training, monitoring and mentoring on
these cases from the USOP Resident Legal Advisor (RLA)
embedded in the KSPO, hopes to secure a conviction in this
case and to use it as a model for future human trafficking
prosecutions in Kosovo.

Undercover police operation frees victims and uncovers
trafficking ring


3. (C) The Pitaqi ring indictment would not have been
possible without the investigative work of Kosovo Police
Service Trafficking in Human Beings Section (THBS),whose
undercover operation exposed their crimes using U.S.
Government-donated surveillance equipment. Suspecting the
Club West Park was employing trafficked women and forcing
them to offer sexual services to its clients, KPS THBS
obtained a court order to do a "simulated purchase," and two
undercover policemen posed as clients at the club on the
evening of April 7. According to the indictment, the
officers spoke to Aleksander Pitaqi about sexual services
that two Moldovan women, Olga Cutu and Ludmilla Calughin,
would provide and then paid him 100 euro each for those
services. Pal Pitaqi subsequently drove the women to the
Hotel Metropol, where a hotel reservation had been made.
When the women arrived, the hotel receptionist showed the two
undercover officers to their respective rooms. The officers
promptly identified themselves and arrested Cutu and
Calughin, whom they later discovered were trafficking
victims. (Note: The two women have since been voluntarily
repatriated to Moldova. End Note.) According to the
indictment, the Pitaqi cousins, Dragan, Pislaru and Ciuvagu
recruited Cutu and Calughin as waitresses or dancers for a
monthly salary of 150 euro, and then forced them to offer
sexual services.

Money transfers and text messages bolster case


4. (C) Loshaj and KPS THBS investigators working on the

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Pitaqi ring case uncovered nearly 60,000 euro in money
transfers from the Pitaqi cousins to co-conspirators in
Moldova, mostly through Dragan, Pislaru and Ciuvagu. These
money transfers not only helped them bolster their
trafficking case, but also enabled them to add money
laundering to the trafficking indictment and seek even
stiffer penalties for the traffickers. This is the first
time such a strategy has been tried in Kosovo.


5. (C) Loshaj and the KPS THBS investigators also discovered
a trail of incriminating text messages about purchasing
tickets for women in Moldova, which bolstered both the
trafficking and money laundering charges. Some of the
messages even contained instructions on how to transport the
victims to Kosovo and how to deal with their travel-related
concerns. Ludmilla Calughin's transport is one example. The
investigators uncovered evidence that Ciuvagu received money
from Aleksander Pitaqi through Dragan to transport Calughin
from Ungheni, Moldova to Pristina on Malev Airlines. The
investigators also obtained text messages from Dragan to
Ciuvagu with information about a Western Union transfer of
1,200 euro to be used to purchase Calughin's tickets.
Client targeted for the first time


6. (C) Loshaj also included facilitating prostitution in the
indictment. This would have been unremarkable if she had
only gone after the Pitaqi cousins for operating clubs
offering sexual services to paying clients, but she also
indicted one of their clients, Uke Kolaj. Kolaj paid
Aleksander Pitaqi 50 euro for the sexual services of a
Moldovan woman named Elena Hrubi on April 7 and found himself
caught up in the KPS THBS sting operation. Kolaj is the
first client to ever be indicted in Kosovo. Kosovo law
specifies that clients may only be charged if they willingly
purchase the services of a trafficking victim. Since this is
nearly impossible to prove, Kosovo prosecutors have never
pursued them. Loshaj, however, cleverly charged Kolaj with
knowingly assisting Aleksander Pitaqi with facilitating
prostitution by purchasing Hrubi's sexual services, thus
paving the way for prosecutors to make the same argument in
future cases.

More indictments to follow


7. (C) Loshaj is now working on two other trafficking-related
indictments, which are also the result of KSPO and KPS THBS
investigations in Gjakova. The first indictment is of a
trafficking ring led by Kosovo Albanian brothers Afrim and
Skender Hoti, who run the Cabana Club. It also involves
Pislaru and Ciuvagu. The Hoti brothers have sent many
explicit text messages about the club's operations and
recruitment of women in Moldova. They have also sent
approximately 25,000 euro to Moldova by Western Union. The
KSPO expects to obtain a search warrant and conduct arrests
within a month.


8. (C) The second indictment focuses on a group run by Lulzim
Thaqi and his uncle, Sadik Thaqi, and is connected to
Gjakova's Club Makuba. The Thaqi ring loans money and women
to other traffickers in the region, and may benefit from the
collusion of a Western Union employee. Photo surveillance
that will support the indictment shows Sadik Thaqi picking up
women at a hotel in the morning and then locking them in an
apartment above the club, while some of the group's text
messages contain explicit information about the club's
operations, as well as the ring's recruitment and
transportation of women, bribery of border police and sexual
initiation of new recruits. According to Loshaj (protect),
Lulzim and Sadik Thaqi have personally sent approximately
125,000 euro to Moldova for the purposes of recruiting and
transporting victims from Moldova, while women working for
the group have sent approximately 40,000 euro. Loshaj hopes
that Thaqi's loans and support to other traffficking groups
will generate new investigations. As with the Hoti ring
investigation, the KSPO expects a search warrant and arrests
within a month.

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9. (C) COMMENT: The groundbreaking Pitaqi indictment
demonstrates that the KSPO's capacity is improving and that
the USG investment in it is reaping benefits in Kosovo's
fight against human trafficking. It paves the way for
future, more comprehensive, indictments such as the two
Loshaj is currently preparing. If successful, the Pitaqi
indictment will also send a powerful message to clients that
they are no longer safe from prosecution, thus chipping away
at demand. USOP will continue to monitor developments in the
Pitaqi case and to support KSPO's trafficking in persons
prosecution efforts. END COMMENT.
KAIDANOW