Serbian witness at The Hague speaks, shows how he was beaten by KLA

The Kosovo Specialised Chambers in The Hague is interviewing witness with code 03540 in the case of four former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders.

Responding to the prosecutor, he has declared that as a ranger, he was detained by KLA soldiers and beaten and tortured for 56 days, at the order of Latif Gashi.

According to the specialised prosecutor, the witness has also issued this statement in 2002, 2003 and 2009, without specifying which court it is referring to.

He claims the order for violence came from Latif Gashi, but had not heard it on his own.

He was later presented with a document by the prosecutor, in which he reportedly wrote his release process on October 26, 1998.

And that's right that I got released but I didn't sign it and I don't know who issued this document”.

In the opening part of this letter, he writes that this document was issued by a branch of Internal Affairs in Podujevo.

The Witness has refused to show that he had met a Serb policeman at the time and that he was unable to speak to anyone because of his physical and psychic state.

The next day it came to know how I escaped from the KLA, but I have no connection with this”.

I almost didn't know anything about myself, so sick. I was so physically ill that I couldn't give this document to someone. I don't know who wrote this document”, he said.

He has later indicated that he received medical treatment at a health institution in Prekuple in Serbia.

Part of this document describes his state of health as <x0-source still suffers from nerve problems and there are severe injuries on the ribs and the kidney, still cannot be believed to have released”, which the witness has confirmed as true.

Asked why he had not shown that he had been mistreated by Latif Gashi and Nuredin Ibishi, he said that” I had forgotten at that time many things and that I was not fully aware yet, I had had many medical treatments, shortly later when I recovered I remembered about Commander”, he relates at the session.

The prosecutor has requested that documents presented at this session during an interview of the eighth witness be taken “as evidence in case and that they have a confirmation nature as to other evidence in this case”.

The Witness currently interviewed by the Special Prosecutor at The Hague was a resident of Podujevo and employed in the same city.

He has further indicated that the release document was signed since he was threatened with death.

They gave me a letter of release, they told me to sign it, that I would no longer violate Kosovo, that I had not been beaten or tortured, three times Latif Gashi told me that if I didn't sign it, we would kill you. I was in a bad position, maybe I made a mistake signing it, but I wanted to live”, he says.

In the trial against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselini, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi, eight witnesses have been heard so far.

According to the indictment, the crimes presented in it were committed at least from March 1998 to September 1999 at several locations in Kosovo, as well as in Kukes and Chahan, in northern Albania.

On May 10th 2022, during their presentations, the four indictees pleaded innocent over the new charges in the amended indictment. On December 15th, the judge of the preliminary procedure passed the case file to the court II.

The preparation conference for the trial was held on 18 January 2023, followed by the Specialised Prosecutor's Preparation Conference on 15 February.

The trial began on April 3rd 2023 with the opening statements of the Specialised Prosecutor and the representative of the victims, followed by defence teams on April 4th and April 5th 2023. There are 140 participating victims on this issue.