Kosovo’s Ex-Security Minister Held Over War Crimes

A court ordered house arrest for former minister Sylejman Selimi and six other Kosovo Liberation Army ex-guerrillas over alleged war crimes against civilian prisoners in 1998.
Edona Peci BIRN Pristina
The court in Pristina on Saturday ordered 30 days of house arrest for former security forces minister Selimi as well as the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbice, Sami Lushtaku, and five other suspects over their alleged involvement in abuses at a Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA jail during wartime.

The case been criticised by the Kosovo government, which has said that it “believes in justice and the innocence of KLA commanders and fighters”.

The court dismissed a request from EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX prosecutors to remand the suspects in custody.

The decision followed a marathon pre-trial hearing which continued into the early hours of Saturday morning.

The ruling against keeping them in detention was welcomed by applause from dozens of relatives and supporters of the suspects who had waited in front of the court for the decision to be made public.

EULEX officers and Kosovo police arrested five of the suspects, who are known as the ‘Drenica Group’, on Thursday.

“The five individuals are being investigated for war crimes against the civilian population in the form of the violation of the bodily integrity and health of civilians held in a KLA detention centre located in Likovc/Likovac (Skenderaj/Srbica municipality),” said a statement from EULEX.

According to the prosecution, civilian detainees were abused at the KLA prison in June 1998.

The arrest of former minister Selimi, who is now Kosovo’s ambassador to Albania, only became public at the hearing.

His lawyer Tome Gashi described the court’s decision to impose house arrest as “very unjust”, also describing it as “a legal scandal”.

“I believe that all the evidence [presented] at this hearing proved… no kind of crimes ever happened in Likovc during the period of time mentioned by the prosecutor,” Gashi told reporters.

He accused EULEX prosecutors of staging “a spectacle” rather than a legal process based on genuine evidence.

He said the defence would appeal against the ruling on Monday.

However, EULEX said the investigation would continue.

Prosecutor Maurizio Salustro mentioned six potential witnesses who could testify about abuses at the Likovc/Likovac detention centre.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci raised concerns about the case at a cabinet meeting on Friday.

“The Kosovo government believes in justice and the innocence of Kosovo Liberation commanders and fighters, the just war of the KLA and Kosovo citizens and the cleanness of the Kosovo Liberation Army war,” Thaci said.

The War Veterans Association has also accused EULEX of “trying to attack the KLA’s war” and has called for a public protest on Monday.

Once an indictment is raised, the case of the Drenica Group will be the third high-profile war crimes case launched by EULEX since its mission in Kosovo began in 2008.

Three ex-KLA commanders, Latif Gashi, Rrustem Mustafa and Nazif Mehmeti - the so-called ‘Llapi Group’ - are currently on trial for allegedly abusing civilians in the Llapashtica/Lapastica prison.

Former KLA commander and transport minister, Fatmir Limaj, and nine other defendants are also on trial for allegedly abusing Serb and Albanian civilians and Serb prisoners of war at the Klecka detention centre.

In a separate case, Lushtaku, the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica, is one of six defendants accused of waging a hate campaign against BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra.