THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Two leaders of a war veterans’ association became the first Wednesday to be convicted by a special court created to prosecute crimes during Kosovo’s fight for independence in the late 1990s.
Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj were charged, not in connection to the war but to witness intimidation and leaking confidential information from the Kosovo Specialist Chambers — a court set up in The Hague in 2017. Though the court operates under Kosovo law, it is staffed with international judges in an effort to thwart corruption.
Gucati was serving as the chair of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Association, Haradinaj as his deputy, when they obtained confidential documents from the court. During a series of press conferences in 2020, the pair revealed privileged material, including the personal details of protected witnesses in war crimes investigations. They also posted information on social media and provided it to journalists.
"These acts took place in a climate of witness intimidation," presiding Judge Charles Smith said when reading the verdict Wednesday.
"This judgment clearly paints those acts for what they are: criminal and not patriotic," Smith added.
Gucati and Haradinaj were arrested at the association's headquarters in Kosovo's capital Pristina during an armed raid carried out by the European Union police. Both men denied the charges against them and accused the court of being politically motivated and having no jurisdiction. During their two-year trial, the prosecution showed a video of Gucati appearing on a Kosovo television program, saying, “It is my pleasure to stop the work of that court.”
Prosecutors had asked for both men to be sentenced to six years in prison, but the pair were acquitted of one charge: retaliation. According to the Trial II panel, that crime would have required the prosecution to show the men intentionally released the information to target specific witnesses, which it did not.
The men were sentenced Wednesday to 4 1/2 years in prison and fined 100 euros ($105) each.
Kosovo politics is still dominated by those who were active in the conflict that spread across the Balkans after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The KLA was formed in the early 1990s to defend Kosovo Albanians against mistreatment by Serbians, who governed the region. In 1998, Kosovo pushed for its independence from Serbia and a yearlong war broke out.
The country’s former president Hashim Thaci is in custody in The Hague, facing charges of war crimes for atrocities committed during the conflict. He, along with another former KLA member Pjeter Shala, pleaded not guilty in 2020, and his trial is ongoing. A former KLM commander Salih Mustafa is also facing charges of war crimes before the court.
In total, the special tribunal has indicated eight people for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other charges. In Kosovo, which has been partially recognized as an independent country since 2008, the proceedings have been seen as controversial, in part because the KLA is viewed as a liberating group.
In a press conference following the hearing, Faton Klinaku, the current head of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Association, told reporters his organization does not agree with the decision or with the court itself. “We have not recognized and will not recognize this court,” he said.
More than 10,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died during the war in Kosovo. About 1 million were driven from their homes before a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbia to pull its troops out of the country and to cede control to the United Nations and NATO.
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