Baki Coku

On July 1, 2015, Baki Coku was arrested in Albania and extradited to Italy as part of an international anti-terror operation.  Coku, born on September 19, 1975, in Lujic, is an Albanian man who at the time was living in Scansano (GR) alongside his sisters Arta Kacabuni and Donika Coku, involved in this case as well, and his wife, Nertila. Coku had been accused of contributing to the wedding of Maria Giulia Sergio and her husband Aldo Kobuzi, their trip to Syria and consequently their enlistment within ISIS in September 2014. He had also been accused of arranging his sister Donica Coku’s journey to Syria as well. Therefore, Coku was charged with art. 270 bis of the Italian Criminal Code.
Coku’s participation in the Sergio case started in September 2014, when his nephew Aldo Kobuzi arrived in Italy from Albania to marry Maria Giulia Sergio. Coku hosted Kobuzi and his own brother Astrit Coku for a few days in his house in Scansano and on September 16, Aldo Kobuzi, Baki Coku, Donika Coku and Arta Kacabuni left for Treviglio for Aldo’s wedding. Court documents reveal that Coku’s car appears to have been used by Kobuzi and Sergio after their wedding to reach Grosseto from Treviglio. Three days later, the newlyweds left for Syria.
Prior to his involvement in this case, Coku hosted for a short period of time the partner of his niece Serjola Kobuzi, Mariglen Dervishllari, an Albanian foreign fighter who was looking for a job in Italy but that later died in Syria fighting for ISIS. The court document of the ruling indicates that the preliminary hearing judge was skeptical about Coku’s statement, believing instead that the trip to Syria to join the Caliphate was a topic which was likely to have emerged in their conversations.
Once extradited to Italy, Baki Coku asked for a shortened proceeding. On February 2016, he was sentenced for participation to a terrorist organisation to two years and eight months. The decision was motivated by the fact that three members of Coku’s family, namely his sister Donika, his nephew Aldo alongside his wife Maria Giulia, and his niece Serjola all left for Syria to join ISIS. The ruling judge deemed that Coku was aware that his involvement was aimed at providing fighters for the terrorist organisation. However, mitigating circumstances led to leniency in his sentencing as no proof was found pointing towards acts of propaganda or support for the Islamic State, combined with the fact that the defendant had no previous convictions. Coku was released in May 2018 and deported “for reasons of public order or State security” by order of the Minister of the Interior.