The Special Court for Kosovo in The Hague handed down the first verdict in the case of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Albanian group that fought for the separation of the region from Serbia in the 1990s. According to the website of the Balkan TV channel N1, the former field commander Salih Mustafa was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
The court found 50-year-old Mustafa guilty of unlawful imprisonment, torture and murder. In 1999, in the vicinity of Pristina, the Kosovo Liberation Army was found to have held captive six Albanians who were tortured and beaten. The prisoners were also starved and not provided with medical care. One of the victims died as a result of such treatment, the rest were released in April 1999.
As follows from the text of the verdict, Mustafa, known in those years as the "commander of Kali", and his subordinates persecuted civilians who were considered spies and accomplices of the Serbian authorities or considered as their political opponents.
The court file also notes that witnesses and victims testified during the trial "in an atmosphere of intimidation and persecution that still reigns in Kosovo." In total, the court heard the testimony of 29 witnesses, the names of most of them were not disclosed for security reasons, the Serbian portal Balkan Insight notes.
It is expected that the issue of compensation to the victims will be resolved in the near future.
Salih Mustafa was arrested in September 2020. He pleaded not guilty.
In 2023, the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who later became politicians, will begin in The Hague.
