Ismail Morina operated the drone which interrupted the Serbia-Albania football match in 2014.
A Croatian court has granted the extradition of Albanian football fan Ismail Morina to Serbia. Morina is suspected of operating a drone which carried a flag to the pitch during the football match between Serbia and Albanian held at a stadium in Belgrade in 2014. The flag included a map of “greater Albania,” and the incident caused unrest and violence among the fans, as well as tensions in relations between the two countries, reports Jutarnji List on 29 July 2017.
Morina was arrested this June in Dubrovnik, on the basis of a Serbian warrant. The court in Dubrovnik approved the extradition of this 35-year-old Albanian to Belgrade last week.
The Albanian Football Association issued a press release and called on authorities in Tirana to try to prevent the extradition of Morina. It also allegedly convinced Morina’s family that it would continue to fight with “all the institutional and legal tools” to help Morina not be extradited.
According to media reports, Albanian football fans are expected to gather in Tirana on Saturday evening to put pressure on the Albanian government to get involved in Morina’s case.
Ismail’s brother Xavair Morina told the local media that the Albanian government did not pay enough attention to his brother’s case and that he believed his brother’s life would be endangered if he were to be extradited to Serbia. “We call upon the state of Albania to get involved and stop the extradition to Serbia. We as a family are ready to do something very radical that would surprise everyone,” said Xavair without revealing details about their plans.
Media reports say that Morina comes from the Kukeš area in the north-eastern Albania, but lives in Italy and regularly attends games played by the Albanian national football team.
The Serbian Ministry of Justice has refused to comment on the issue.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
