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Astrit Dehari
Astrit Dehari

A Kosovar opposition activist found dead in his cell this month committed suicide and no one else was involved, a prosecutor said on November 18.

Medical student Astrit Dehari's death triggered street protests after his nationalist Vetevendosje (VV) party called it murder by stangulation, accused the government of failing to protect him, and demanded an investigation.

But an autopsy determined that the "blockage of the upper respiratory tract" was "self-inflicted," Kosovo authorities said.

"All the evidence...shows that this case was a suicide," prosecutor Syle Hoxha said.

Prosecutor Hoxha said authorities had examined all the video footage and questioned 17 people, but they had found no evidence of a crime.

Dehari, 26, was arrested with five other members of the hard-line nationalist party in September on suspicion of being involved in a rocket-propelled-grenade attack on parliament.

The attack was launched as lawmakers were preparing to vote on a border deal with neighboring Montenegro, a condition of getting visa-free access to the European Union. No one was injured.

VV, the largest opposition party, opposes the deal, saying it hands over about 8,000 hectares of Kosovar territory to Montenegro.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Amnesty International announced on November 3 that Moscow's office had been sealed, a door broken, locks changed, and the alarm system switched off.
Amnesty International announced on November 3 that Moscow's office had been sealed, a door broken, locks changed, and the alarm system switched off.

The director of Amnesty International's branch in Russia says his staff has returned to the Moscow office that they were evicted from earlier in November.

Sergei Nikitin said on November 18 that he signed a new lease agreement with the Moscow property department, after which they were allowed to return to the office, which had been sealed for 16 days.

Nikitin added that the sides agreed that the eviction was the result of a "technical mix-up" and that Amnesty International did not owe any payments on the old lease.

Nikitin posted photographs of the staff returning to the office on his Facebook page.

On November 3, Nikitin announced that the organization's Moscow office had been sealed, a door broken, locks changed, and the alarm system switched off.

The Moscow property department claimed the group owed rent, which the London-based Amnesty denied.

Nongovernmental organizations that are critical of the Kremlin have come under pressure from the Russian authorities since the country adopted a law in 2012 requiring all organizations that receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents."

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

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"Watchdog" is a blog with a singular mission -- to monitor the latest developments concerning human rights, civil society, and press freedom. We'll pay particular attention to reports concerning countries in RFE/RL's broadcast region.

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