Kosovo: Former rebel commander sentenced to 26 years in prison for war crimes

It was very expected. On Friday, the Special Court for Kosovo in The Hague handed down its first war crimes verdict, sentencing former rebel commander Salih Mustafa to 26 years in prison.

Arrested in 2020, he was accused, among other things, of torturing prisoners in a makeshift prison run by Kosovo Albanian independence fighters during the 1998-1999 war of independence against Serbia. The trial heard 29 witnesses, according to the court, officially known as the Specialized Chamber of Kosovo.

The judges found that the man led a group that detained at least six Kosovo Albanians in the barn, accused of collaborating with the Serbs. Prisoners were beaten with baseball bats, iron clubs, tortured with electric shocks, burned and deprived of food and water in a stable in Zllash, a village east of the capital of Pristina. Salih Mustafa personally participated in the beating of two detainees. One of the victims died. A special court found him guilty of murder and torture.

Witness intimidation convictions

The Special Court for Kosovo (KSC) is a body under Kosovo law, composed of international judges, and responsible for investigating crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) during and after the conflict. Founded in 2015, it is based in the Netherlands and funded by the EU to protect witnesses under pressure and threats as former KLA commanders still dominate Kosovo’s political life.

Last year, a court sentenced two veterans to four and a half years in prison for witness intimidation. The court indicted war crimes charges against several senior KLA officials, including former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who stepped down after the indictment but is still considered a hero in his country.

The war in Kosovo, which claimed 13,000 lives, ended when Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s troops retreated from an 11-week NATO bombing raid. Although Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, Belgrade does not recognize it and calls on the Serbian majority in the country’s north to challenge Pristina’s rule.

The verdict came as ethnic tensions flared up again in Kosovo, nearly a quarter of a century after the war. There was a shootout with police over the weekend and EU law enforcement was criticized.