Kosovo Veterans Jailed For War Crimes Witness Intimidation

The Hague, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2022 ) :A war crimes court in The Hague jailed two Kosovo former separatist fighters to four-and-a-half years on Wednesday for intimidating witnesses, in its first verdict over Kosovo's 1990s independence war from Serbia.

Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, the head and the deputy head of a group of veterans from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), were found guilty of revealing the details of hundreds of witnesses after receiving classified files from the court.

The two men, who were arrested in September 2022, called witnesses "traitors, spies and collaborators" in a bid to scare them off testifying to the Netherlands-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the court found.

"This judgment clearly paints those acts for what they are: criminal and not patriotic," presiding judge Charles Smith said as he handed down the sentences at the high-security court.

"The message of the accused to these witnesses was: now that everyone knows who you are, no one can protect you.

" The time the men have already served in detention since their arrest will be deducted from the sentence, Smith said. They were also fined 100 Euros each.

Gucati and Haradinaj, who had denied the charges, listened to the judgment through headphones and stood to be sentenced.

They were found guilty on five counts including intimidating witnesses and violating the secrecy of the court and cleared of one charge of "retaliation".

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers operates under Kosovo law but is based in the Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation in Kosovo, where former KLA commanders have long dominated political life.

The court has issued war crimes charges against several senior members of the KLA, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group that waged a 1998-99 independence struggle against Serbia.

They include Kosovo's former president Hashim Thaci, who resigned after being indicted.