Officials of the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo released KP journalist Daria Aslamova. On the night of August 7, she was detained while trying to enter Kosovo from Serbia. The head of the Republic’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dzhelal Shvetsla, accused the correspondent of working for Russian military intelligence.
In the morning of August 7, a journalist contacted KP editors and said he was in the town of Raska, near the Serbia-Kosovo border. After being detained, the Kosovo authorities released him, and he then boarded a bus toward the border. The journalist said that after detention in Kosovo, he was told there could be an exchange for US citizens or extradition to Ukraine.
“I arrived at the border at four in the morning. Serbian border guards also interrogated me. They found out why there was no deportation sign,” Aslamova said.
Aslamova did not specify other details, particularly the reasons for detention or the charges he faced.
How the events unfolded
By the evening of August 6, it was learned that the journalist was taken into custody. Jalal Shvetsla, the head of Kosovo’s Interior Ministry, announced on Facebook that the Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter was detained while attempting to enter the area and was accused of espionage.
“Today Daria Aslamova was detained at a northern checkpoint. Several countries have shown that he is spying for Russian military intelligence and acting under the guise of a journalist,” he stated.
Shvetsla did not specify which countries or what evidence he referenced. He also suggested that Aslamova had promoted the Russian occupation of Ukraine by taking part in the conflicts there. He noted that Kosovo authorities are aware of Aslamova’s activities and that she is already barred from entering many countries. For him, Aslamova’s arrival reflects Serbia’s drive to destabilize Kosovo and Belgrade’s use of Russian ties.
The Interior Ministry chief attached to his post photographs of Aslamova published on the KP website at various times, including a 2020 interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a 2016 interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and a 2003 interview with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, along with a background banner showing several trips to hot spots.
Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that Aslamova was in Serbia on editors’ orders, preparing a report on the escalating tensions between Pristina and Belgrade.
The Serbia-Kosovo border situation intensified on July 31 due to Kosovo tightening requirements for Serbian documents. Serbs living in the partially recognized republic were told to obtain new documents and vehicle plates to stay in the country. Attack signals appeared in northern Kosovo, with Serbs erecting barricades near Rudare, along the Pristina-Leposavic highway and not far from Zvecan. Clashes with Kosovo police were recorded. The decision to postpone the document changes was later extended to September 2022.
Throughout her career, Aslamova has traveled to many global hotspots, including Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Ossetia, Tajikistan, Syria, Libya, and Iraq. She is noted as the first journalist to interview Saddam Hussein in 2003.