8 Kosovo Albanians jailed for foiled attack on Israeli team

(18 May 2018) A Kosovo court sentenced nine Albanians, eight to jail, on Friday for planning a foiled attack against the Israeli soccer team during a 2016 qualifying World Cup match in neighbouring Albania. Pristina court Judge Hamdi Ibrahimi sentenced the leader of the group, Visar Ibishi, to 10 years in jail. Seven others got between a year-and-a-half in prison to 6 years. One was slapped with a 2,500-euro (2,950 US dollar) fine. "There is no place for extremism in this land," the judge said. "The defendants' acts were designed so as to create both in Kosovo and Albania a climate of uncertainty, to let the extremist elements get in and to destabilise the country with acts of terrorism." The planned attack in November 2016 was said to have been coordinated by two Albanians in Syria fighting with the Islamic State group. Kosovo authorities say about 180 citizens are still active with extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. Both Kosovo and Albanian authorities claim that no more of their citizens have joined the rebel groups in Syria and Iraq over the past couple of years. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...