Hague special tribunal investigating allegations of atrocities committed by Kosovo pro-independence fighters opens its first case against a commander, Salih Mustafa, accused of torturing prisoners during the 1998-1999 conflict with Serbia.
A special tribunal in The
Hague investigating allegations of atrocities committed by
Kosovo pro-independence fighters has opened its first case, against a commander accused of torturing prisoners
during the 1998-1999 conflict with Serbia.
At the start of his trial on Wednesday, Salih Mustafa, 50, pleaded not
guilty to charges of war crimes, comparing the court to the Nazi
secret police.
“I am not guilty of any of the counts brought here before me
by this Gestapo office,” Mustafa told judges.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a Kosovo court seated in the
Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was
set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against fighters
of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
It is separate from a UN tribunal, which was also located in The Hague and tried Serbian
officials for crimes committed in the same conflict.
The Kosovo tribunal’s highest-profile suspect is former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who turned himself in last year
to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In the court’s first case, Mustafa faces charges of murder,
accused of running a prison unit where inmates where subjected
to daily beatings and torture.
Prosecutors explained that in
Mustafa’s case his victims were also Kosovo Albanians.
“Certain leaders of the KLA, including mister Mustafa, used
their power to victimise and brutalize fellow Kosovo Albanians
including individuals whose only crime was to have political
views that differed from those of the KLA and its leaders,”
prosecutor Jack Smith said.
Brutal Kosovo war
Mustafa’s indictment says he personally took part in some of
the beatings and torture of at least six prisoners and was
present when an inmate was so badly hurt that he later died.
After listening to the prosecution opening statement
Mustafa, dressed in red and black athletic gear and occasionally
fidgeting with a pen did not return to court to hear the opening statement of lawyers for the victims.
The judges allowed Mustafa to be absent from proceedings for
the rest of the day, adding that his interests would be
represented by his lawyer.
More than 13,000 people are believed to have died during the
1998-99 war in Kosovo, when the southern province was still part
of Serbia under the rule of late Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
Fighting ended after NATO air strikes against
Milosevic’s forces and Kosovo is now an independent country.
KLA fighters are considered heroes by many in Kosovo, and
opponents of the tribunal consider it unfair that they are being
prosecuted, arguing that Serbia has undergone no analogous
effort to bring its own commanders to justice.
Source: Reuters
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