First Special Court, all that was said at the first session of Salih Mustaf

The act against him for arbitrary ban, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful murder was confirmed in June of last year.

The crimes were allegedly committed at the 2003 detention complex in Kosovo in April 1999.

Other hearings in the case of Mustafa are expected to be held later this month.

This is the first judgment to be launched in Specialised Chambers at The Hague, also known as the Special Court.

Prosecutor: Victims were Albanians

The specialised prosecutor, Jack Smith, said during the opening speech that while the other cases that will appear before this court, all the victims of various ethnicities, such as Kosovo Albanians, Serbs, Roma, in the case of Mustaf, according to him, all the victims were his countrymen, Kosovo Albanians.

According to the Specialised Prosecutor “feji the only” of some victims was that they were members of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

Smith has also praised Kosovo and its people for establishing the Special Court and supporting this institution.

This court proudly speaks of the dedication of people in Kosovo to rule of law. Kosovo's people have been the driving force of our office and this institution”, he said.

Specialised Prosecutor Smith said war crimes are not justified.

The opponents of this court use expressions like a clean war. As a prosecutor, it's beyond my duty to show you what's a clear fight, but I can say that war crimes on one side do not justify crimes on the other”, Smith said.

The prosecutor of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office, Caesar Michaczuk, said the victims were seen as “obstruction” of the KLA leadership.

These people were not enemies of the state of Kosovo, they were not spies. They were members of the community, innocent Kosovo Albanians whose only crime was that they were seen by others, for one reason or another, were seen as the obstacle of the KLA and its leaders, and therefore they were labeled as co-bortists”, he said.

The Specialised Prosecutor's Office (ZPS) argued that the victims held at a detention centre in Zlath were named war collaborators.

The SPS has detailed the location where the crimes committed by Salih Mustafa allegedly occurred.

According to this description, the building in Zlath was two stories old and isolated from other structures.

This building doesn't stand today, but according to Z. The SP's evidence shown during the trial will testify to the prosecution's presence in this country at the time when crimes allegedly were committed.

According to the prosecution, two of the victims held in Zlath were particularly ill treated. One of them has never been found, while the body of one of the victims was found in a shallow grave in short distance from the headquarters in Zlat.

The court announced that two witnesses in the process will testify between September 20th and 28th.

Mustafa compares Specialised Prosecutor to Gestapo office

Meanwhile, former Kosovo Liberation Army Commander Salih Mustafa was acquitted of war crimes charges.

On charges against him, Mustafa has been declared innocent before. But even during the start of the session, the judge asked him if this statement still stands and Mustafa said:

“Yes, for none of the points this Gestapo office charges me with, making reference to the secret police service in Nazi Germany's time.

After the completion of the specialised Prosecutor's entry speech, Salih Mustafa did not return to the courtroom after announcing to his lawyer that he does not want to be present during the trial.

What is Salih Mustafa accused of?

The act against Mustafa for arbitrary ban, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful murder has been confirmed in June of last year. He had been arrested on September 24, 2020, and has since been in custody at The Hague in the Netherlands.

The crimes Mustafa is charged with, according to the indictment, allegedly committed during April 1999 at a detention centre in the village of Zlath, located in the Pristina municipality.

According to the indictment, Salih Mustafa, also known as Commander Caliı, was commander of the guerrilla unit. BIA (BIA) units within the Kosovo Liberation Army Operative Zone Lap.

According to the announcement of Specialised Chambers in The Hague, on the first day of the trial the chief judge of the Judicial Chamber will open the trial and inform the accused of his rights and obligations.

The Specialised Prosecutor's Office will have three hours for its own opening statement.

The defender representing the participating victims will then have an hour and a half for its opening declaration.

The “so far as participating victims in the process have been accepted nine people, and the process of submitting requests has been opened”, the Specialised Chambers announced.

The hearing for this trial is scheduled for the months of September and October.

Judges have announced that the prosecution will have 87 hours to present its evidence. The prosecution plans to call 16 witnesses, 15 of whom will testify in the courtroom.

In addition to Mustafa, judicial processes are expected to begin even with former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, former head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kadri Veselini, former KLA member General Staff Rexhep Selimi and former KLA spokeswoman Jakup Krasniqi.

They are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since November 2020 they have been in custody at The Hague and have been declared innocent of charges weighing on them.

According to the indictment, Thaci, Veselin, Krasniqi and Selimi are suspected of criminal acts involving war crimes: illegal or arbitrary bans, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful murder, and crimes against humanity: imprisonment, other inhumane acts, forced extinction of persons and persecution, which, according to the Special Chambers, were committed between March 1998 and September 1999.

The crimes allegedly were committed in several Kosovo locations and in northern Albania, in Kukes and Chahan respectively.

Specialised Chambers and Specialised Prosecutor's Office, also known as the Special Court, investigate the alleged crimes of members of the Kosovo Liberation Army committed against ethnic minorities and political rivals from January 1998 to December 2000.

These alleged crimes are mentioned in a 2011 Council of Europe report, author of which is Swiss senator Dick Marty.

The court is founded by the Kosovo Assembly, but operates in The Hague of the Netherlands. / REL