THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Judges at the EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers knocked four years off the sentence of a convicted war criminal on Thursday, saying they were bringing the punishment in line with rulings from other international courts.
Salih Mustafa, who commanded Kosovo forces during the country’s bid for independence from Serbia in the 1990s, seemed bemused as the presiding judge read out the decision rejecting most of the appeal but approving a reduction in jail time.
Judge Michèle Picard said Mustafa’s 26-year sentence was “out of reasonable proportion” with other war crimes convictions, dropping it to 22 years for the unrepentant defendant.
The 51-year-old was convicted of three counts of war crimes last year for abusing prisoners at a detention compound near Pristina, the country’s capital. Mustafa was in charge of a Kosovo Liberation Army unit, primarily made up of ethnic Albanians like himself who were fighting for Kosovo's independence from Serbia.
The Zllash detention facility held mostly fellow Kosovar Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serbian forces. Those detained in the compound's agricultural building were refused food and medical treatment, kept in filthy conditions and beaten.
Prosecutors asked for a 35-year sentence, arguing Mustafa deserved the lengthy sentence because of the gravity of the crimes and his lack of remorse.
Mustafa denied his involvement in any of the crimes when the trial opened last year. “I am not guilty of any of the counts of this Gestapo office,” he told the court in September 2021, speaking in his native Albanian.
The proceedings have been controversial because the Kosovo Liberation Army was repelling invading Serbian forces that wanted Kosovo to remain part of Serbia following the break up of Yugoslavia. Several Serbians were prosecuted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a United Nations-backed court to deal with several conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s.
The court is not an international tribunal but rather operates under Kosovo law, created by an amendment to the country’s constitution following a 2011 report from human rights organization, the Council of Europe, which claimed the KLA had engaged in widespread atrocities, including organ harvesting. The court has been moved to The Hague and employs international judges to minimize political interference.
Prosecutors have also indicted former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, former parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli and five others for crimes that include murder, enforced disappearances, persecution and torture.
Mustafa was the first defendant to appear before the court, but the tribunal has already convicted two others for witness tampering and intimidation. Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, two leaders of a war veterans' association, were the first to be found guilty when they were sentenced in May to four and a half years in prison. The sentence was reduced on appeal.
The pair revealed privileged material, including the personal details of protected witnesses in war crimes investigation, during a series of press conferences in 2020 after someone leaked records from the court.
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