Kosovo ex-military judge questioned over warcrimes

The former head of a wartime guerrilla court in Kosovo was questioned Thursday by war crime prosecutors probing atrocities against Serbs during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbia.

"I was summoned for an interview as a witness," Sokol Dobruna told reporters after a six-hour long interview in Pristina. He did not rule out that the interview "could serve as a ground for the indictment" against him.

The questioning will continue on Friday and Saturday, he said.

The EU-funded tribunal was established in 2015 to probe crimes allegedly committed by senior members of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during and immediately after the war, notably against Serbs, Romas and Kosovo Albanian political opponents.

The Special Prosecution Office has yet to issue indictments as speculation has raged over who will be targeted, including possibly Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, the KLA wartime political leader.

In some of the first summons, two wartime commanders Rrustem Mustafa-Remi, 47, and Sami Lushtaku, 57, were called to The Hague in mid-January.

Several others former lower-level KLA members have recently received summons for interviews in The Hague, local media reported.

On his Facebook site Thaci on Thursday called on "any former freedom fighter" to "respond to the Specialised Chambers with civic and legal correctness."

Thaci, regularly cited as a possible suspect, told AFP earlier this year that he had "nothing to hide" and was ready to respond to the tribunal "at any moment, under any circumstances" and "with all my capacity".

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was formed after a 2011 Council of Europe report that alleged the KLA carried out kidnaping, assassinations, unlawful detentions and other crimes against at least 500 civilians, mostly Serbs.

The court was established under Kosovo law, but has international judges and prosecutors and is located in The Hague to protect witnesses in highly sensitive cases.

The last conflict in the bloody break up of Yugoslavia, Kosovo war between KLA and Serbian armed forces claimed 13,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.

It ended after a three-month long NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian troops, controlled by late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, out of the breakaway territory.

In 2008 mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, which Serbia fiercly refuses to recognise.

ih/ng/ks/pvh

Facebook

Justice Info is on Bluesky
Like us, you used to be a fan of Twitter but you're disappointed with X? Then join us on Bluesky and let's set the record straight, in a healthier way.
Continue reading...