Albin Kurti

Albin Kurti ( born March 24, 1975 in Pristina, Yugoslavia, now Kosovo ) is a former Kosovo Albanian student leader, political prisoner and leader of the Kosovar organization Vetëvendosje.

Career

After primary school (1981 to 1989) and further leading School (1989 to 1993) in Pristina Albin studied from 1993 at the University of Prishtina Albanian underground electrical engineering. He became head of the Independent Students Union of the University of Prishtina ( SIUUP ) and one of the organizers of student resistance against the Serbian domination in Kosovo. In 1997, he joined the KLA guerrillas; 1997 to 1999 he organized student protest in Pristina and other major cities of Kosovo.

During this time he gained as one of the internationally -known members of the Kosovar resistance to Serbia political experience abroad in Washington, New York, Brussels, Copenhagen and the European Parliament in Strasbourg; Kurti met with senior representatives of Western Europe and the USA as Robin Cook, Klaus Kinkel, Hubert Vedrine and Bill Clinton's special envoy for the Balkans Robert Gelbard.

In March 1999, Kurti ceased all activities. In April 1999 he was arrested during the war in Kosovo by the Serbian police in Prishtina. A Serbian District Court in Nis sentenced him in March 2000 for membership in a terrorist group to 15 years in prison for threatening national integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and formation of a union with hostile activity related to terrorism.

After the change of power in Serbia in September 2000, Kurti was released by the new government of Serbia on 7 December 2001 on international pressure down. With a demonstration of Kosovo Action Network, the predecessor organization of Vetëvendosje (Albanian = " self-determination" ) on 10 June 2004 against the UN Resolution 1244, which established the stay of the UN Mission Kosovo, Kurtis began career as a resistance fighter against the international presence in Kosovo.

12 June 2010 Kurti was arrested in Pristina for acts during a demonstration on 10 February 2007, shortly before he announced the participation of the movement Vetëvendosje at the next general election. On 14 June 2010, the trial against Kurti in Pristina began.