First Signs of Special Court

Two regional commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), Sami Lushtaku of Rrustem Mustafa, have flown to The Hague in Holland this week to face next Monday with questions from a body of international prosecutors, who suspect they are involved in the crimes mentioned in Senator Dick Marty's report. Another number of KLA exhibitors, with a special aircraft, have also flown from Pristina as war crimes suspects, writes today “Koha Ditore”.

This is the first wave of Kosovars to appear at the Special Prosecutor's Office. This prosecution organ, along with the specialised chamber made up of the court, constitutes the institution known in public as the Special Court, which was founded by the Assembly of Kosovo in August 2015, through a constitutional amendment and a law.

The specialist is formally part of the Kosovo justice system, but is located at The Hague in the Netherlands and is composed only of international judges and prosecutors. It has jurisdiction to address the alleged crimes in the report, titled “The inhuman treatment of persons and the illegal trafficking of human organs in Kosovo”, which the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved in January 2011. The report holds many KLA members responsible, the weighted positions in which three current state leaders -- President Hashim Thaci, Chief Prime Minister Kadri Veselini and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj -- as responsible.

In the report, Thaci and Wessel are identified as responsible for some of the crimes. But based on the available information, neither has been interviewed nor invited to The Hague to face prosecutors' questions.