The prosecution had alleged that Jakupi and another person opened fire on three uniformed police officers in Skopje on September 15, 2014.
It claimed that officers Zoran Angelovski, Vasko Ivanovski and Elza Durmitrovska were attacked and seriously injured by gunshots while on patrol in a police car.
“By shooting at the three officers, Lirim Jakupi tried to deprive them of life in the following circumstances: he deliberately jeopardised the lives of these people, acting ruthlessly and violently, at a time when the three officers were carrying out their duty of upholding the legal order, detecting criminal offences and maintaining public order and peace”, the indictment alleged.
Jakupi joined the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1998 and fought against Serbian security forces.
He was also involved in forming the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, UCPMB, which launched attacks on security forces in Albanian-populated areas of southern Serbia in 2000.
After the UCPMB was demobilised, Jakupi returned to Kosovo.
In 2007, Jakupi was arrested by international security forces but managed to break out of Kosovo’s Dubrava prison.
Macedonian police raided the village of Brodec near the Kosovo border in November 2007, three months after his escape from prison.
Several members of Jakupi’s group were killed and several others arrested, although he managed to get away.
Macedonian courts jailed Jakupi in absentia for 15 years in July 2008 for organising a terrorist group and the illegal possession of weapons.
In 2010, he was again arrested, after a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, two hand grenades and two pistols were discovered at the apartment where he was detained by police special forces, officials said at the time.
In 2014, Kosovo’s international police force again arrested Jakupi on leaving the Dubrava prison because Macedonia had issued an international arrest warrant against him.
