Kosovo court upholds rebel commander's war crimes conviction

The Kosovo court in The Hague on Thursday rejected the appeal of former rebel commander Salih Mustafa, who in 2022 was found guilty of torture and murder in the tribunal's landmark first conviction. 

The court, known formally as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, upheld Mustafa's convictions for arbitrary detention, torture, and murder but reduced his sentence by four years, meaning he now has a jail term of 22 years.

During Kosovo's 1998-99 conflict with Serbia, Mustafa, 51, then a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla commander, ran a makeshift torture center where fellow ethnic Albanians accused of spying for Serb forces were detained, beaten and tortured, with one detainee dying.

What did the court rule?  

"The appeals panel considers that a single sentence of 22 years of imprisonment ... reflects the totality of Mr. Mustafa's criminal conduct in this case," said presiding judge Michele Picard.

Picard stressed that the reduction in the sentence "in no way suggests that the crimes for which he has been convicted and sentenced are not grave."

However, she said a review of other "comparable" war crimes cases in Kosovo and elsewhere had shown that "shorter sentences were imposed than those imposed on Mr. Mustafa."

She called Thursday's ruling — the first appeals judgment in a war crimes case at the court — a "significant step toward providing justice to victims and ensuring accountability."

What are the Kosovo Specialist Chambers?

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were set up in the Netherlands in 2015 to judge cases against former KLA guerillas pertaining to the 1998-1999 conflict, in which some 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, are believed to have died.

The high-security court operates under Kosovo law.

It is based in the Netherlands to protect witnesses from facing intimidation in Kosovo, as former KLA commanders are still very present in political life there.

The Kosovo war pitted the mainly Serbian forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, against the KLA, a Kosovo Albanian rebel group.

The fighting ended after a 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces. 

tj/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters)