Kosovo’s AKI Scandal Meets a Spy Case, This Is Pristina’s Week of Intelligence Whiplash

Kosovo closes AKI fund probe citing limitations, then arrests commentator Fatmir Sheholli for suspected espionage; court orders one month’s detention under Article 124 following investigation.

On the afternoon of 7 October 2025, a small, insistent story in Pristina began to gather force. KALLXO.com reported¹ that Kosovo’s Special Prosecution had closed an investigation into a “special fund” at the Kosovo Intelligence Agency (AKI), a discreet budget line allegedly spent between 2017 and 2020 by three former AKI directors with scant documentation. Roughly two million euros, the agency’s own internal inspector suggested, had been disbursed with no clear record of who received the money or why. Prosecutors cited relative statute of limitations for two of the former directors and insufficient evidence for the third. AKI, unusually blunt in public, said the evidence of abuse was “clear and grounded.”

Two days later, the story burst into the open with a jolt. Kosovo’s acting interior minister, Xhelal Sveçla, announced that police², working closely with the AKI and prosecutors, had arrested the public commentator Fatmir Sheholli on suspicion of espionage. The minister’s language was stark, almost prosecutorial, promising an “uncompromising” pursuit of anyone working “for Serbia and against Kosovo.” The Special Prosecution followed with a formal note³: after months of inquiry, investigators had moved, seizing materials in a several-hour search of Sheholli’s flat and ordering his detention for 48 hours.

By 10 October, prosecutors had asked a judge to impose pre-trial custody. That evening the Basic Court of Pristina agreed⁴, ordering one month’s detention and endorsing the Special Prosecution’s account that the suspected offence fell under Article 124 (“Espionage”) of Kosovo’s Criminal Code, a provision that covers, among other acts, entering the service of a foreign intelligence organisation or collecting and transmitting sensitive information to it.