77-year-old Haziri recounts his days inside a Serbian prison: I found strength in my friends who were...

Although he did not commit any crimes, nor was he part of the KLA, as Serbia claimed, 77-year-old Hazir Haziri was held for more than four months in a Belgrade prison, where, in a story for Ekonomia Online, he says that the only strength he found was in the former political prisoners who suffered in these prisons for years, just because of their political opposition.

Hazir Haziri, who returned to Kosovo on the evening of January 21, emotionally recounts the moments when he was welcomed at the border by his family and citizens, but also the hug he received from the police officers of the Republic of Kosovo.

He also had a call for all those passing through Serbia, asking them not to go there, since the Serbs are taking some kind of revenge, since the Kosovo institutions are arresting precisely the Serbian criminals who commit crimes in Kosovo.

Haziri tells the moment he was arrested.

"They detained me in Merdare, they took me to Belgrade. They held me for one night and didn't tell me, I said 'tell me what I'm for', they said 'you're accused of war crimes'. It was very hard for me to tell you, because that is the most serious charge... They gave me a month in prison, after a month... this is political imprisonment and I have to stay here, and they keep me in prison for four more months, or whatever. Like any prison, that prison has the most difficult name, the infamous prison, the central prison of Serbia. It kept me going and made me strong when I thought that my generation and my friends have suffered prisons, 3 years, 5 years, 6 years, 15 years, 20 years with the most inhuman torture and they stayed, and I became evil for four or five months, and that's where I based myself and gathered my strength", Haziri confessed.

As one of the fates of this sad story, he tries to bring out the one he shared with an Albanian from Shkodra, who had shown care for him. But he cannot shake the pain of the time he lost within the four walls of a prison located in the territory of a people who committed massacres in Kosovo.

 "I can't say that I was treated badly. Even as a 77-year-old man, they didn't call me a criminal, I hung out with Albanians from Shkodra, and they looked at me like I had a son, they cleaned everything up for me. This too will pass. It was a challenge, and I wasn't young, when I was young I could handle it, but when I was a little older. It hurt me because I have 15-16 grandchildren. Instead of hanging out with them, I was there, but that too passed," says Haziri.

He recounts the moment of his arrival in Kosovo.

"I thank all Albanians, and Jetish Jashari, who visited me two or three times. I also thank Arian Koci, he came without anyone's involvement, in a humanitarian way, he just helped me and went to court and looked after me. Yesterday they let me go, the lawyer brought me and they came out to pick me up and at the border my family and citizens had come out to meet me, that reception was very emotional, the policemen hugging me", Haziri recounts with emotion.

Haziri had a message for all family members who have their loved ones imprisoned in Serbian prisons.

"I have a message for fathers, sisters and brothers who have their loved ones, let them be freer, because we have a prejudice about how Serbs beat them, but they are not, because they know that these are political arrests, prisoners are not treated badly," he underlines.

All these arrests being made by Serbs, Haziri says, are being made as a response to Kosovo institutions, but here there was also a call for citizens to avoid the border that passes through Serbia.

"I also have a message for young guys, but also older ones, who have no connection at all: do not travel to Serbia because they are conducting a campaign as a response to our bodies that are imprisoning Serbs who have truly committed crimes, let's take it too," Haziri advised.