PRISTINA: Judges at the Kosovo tribunal have convicted a former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander who ran a prison where torture took place during the 1998-99 independence conflict with Serbia.
In its first-ever war crimes verdict, the court on Friday sentenced Salih Mustafa to 26 years in prison for war crimes, including murder and torture in a detention centre where prisoners, mostly fellow Kosovo Albanians who were political opponents of the KLA, were beaten and tortured on a daily basis.
Head Judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia said the verdict was a “milestone” for the court, which was set up in 2015, and “constitutes the first war crimes judgment of this tribunal”.
“The panel sentences you to a single sentence of 26 years of imprisonment,” she told Mustafa, who wore a grey suit and blue tie and stood impassively during the verdict.
Judges found Mustafa personally took part in the beatings and torture of at least two prisoners and allowed his subordinates to mistreat another so badly that the prisoner later died.
Mustafa, 50, had denied the charges and his lawyers accused prosecution witnesses of fabricating their stories. Both sides have 30 days to appeal the decision.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a Kosovo court seated in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up to handle cases under Kosovo law against former KLA fighters.
The court is separate from the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which was also located in The Hague where it tried and convicted Serbian officials for war crimes committed in the Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts.
More than 13,000 people are believed to have died during the 1998-99 uprising in Kosovo when it was still part of Serbia under then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
The fighting ended after NATO air raids on Serbian forces, and Kosovo declared independence in 2008 – although Belgrade does not recognize its independence.
The verdict came at a sensitive time, as ethnic tensions have flared again in Kosovo nearly a quarter-century after the war, with attackers exchanging gunfire with police at the weekend. -Agencies
