A Kosovo court sentences a man to prison for planning an attack on LGBTQ+ marchers

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A Kosovo court on Tuesday sentenced a man to three-and-a-half years in prison for planning attacks.

A Pristina court statement said the man contacted a person in Saudi Arabia to learn how to create bombs he planned to use against an LGBTQ+ march in the capital and at the Merdare border crossing. He was arrested a year ago at the Pristina international airport upon his return from Saudi Arabia.

Local media identified the man as Blendi Vrajolli, who had lived until recently in France. Evidence that French authorities found at his residence in France showed that “he was inspired by radical Islamic ideologies to create bombs and commit terror attacks in Kosovo,” according to the prosecutor’s report.

Kosovo’s Interior Ministry has estimated that about 30 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo are with militant groups in Syria and Iraq.