The United Special Tribunal for Kosovo on Thursday (February 2nd) reduced the prison sentences of two veterans convicted of intimidating witnesses to war crimes committed during the 1990s war of independence against Serbia.
The judges of the court which sits in The Hague, in the Netherlands, reduced on appeal by three months the prison sentences imposed in May 2022 on Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, reducing them to four years and three months.
Traitors, spies and collaborators
Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, respectively leader and deputy leader of an organization of veterans of the Albanian pro-independence guerrilla, the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), were found guilty of revealing information leading to identify hundreds of witnesses whom they had called "
traitors, spies and collaborators
".
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The Special Court for Kosovo (KSC) on appeal upheld their convictions on three counts of intimidation and breaching court secrecy, but acquitted them on two counts of obstructing officials.
“
In view of its conclusions, the jury of appeal, by a majority, reduced the sentences of MM.
Gucati and Haradinaj
,” said presiding judge Michèle Picard.
The court, funded by the EU, is a Kosovar law body composed of international judges and charged with investigating crimes committed by the KLA during and after the conflict.
long-term investigation
Several former UCK commanders are under investigation for war crimes committed during the conflict (1998-1999), which left 13,000 dead and which opposed, in what was at the time a southern province of Serbia, the independence guerrillas to the Serbian forces.
Former Kosovo president and former KLA political leader Hashim Thaçi - who resigned in 2020 after his indictment - faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In December, the court handed down its first war crimes verdict, sentencing a former rebel commander, Salih Mustafa, who ran a torture center, to 26 years in prison.
