For the primary time, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander has been discovered responsible of struggle crimes at a unique tribunal within the Hague.
Salih Mustafa used to be sentenced to 26 years for homicide and torture at a jail he ran all through the 1998-99 independence warfare with Serbia.
The pass judgement on described the case as a milestone resolution. “There seems to be a misconception that these charges were brought against the Kosovo Liberation Army as such or against the people of Kosovo as a whole,” Mappie Veldt-Foglia advised the courtroom.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. It was the people of Kosovo through the parliament who chose to create and empower this institution.”
Mustafa has again and again denied the fees.
Mustafa used to be arrested in 2020 in Kosovo and despatched to the Netherlands to face trial on the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a department of the rustic’s criminal machine arrange in particular to take care of allegations of struggle crimes dedicated as ethnic Albanian rebels united within the Kosovo Liberation Army fought a bloody warfare to break free from Serbia in 1998-99.
More than 13,000 individuals are believed to have died all through the rebellion in Kosovo when it used to be nonetheless a part of Serbia.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, even supposing Belgrade nonetheless does now not acknowledge it.
