Kosovo war crimes court arrests first suspect | Al Jazeera

Prosecutors for a Hague-based international tribunal investigating war crimes committed during Kosovo’s 1990s independence war have arrested their first suspect – a former senior commander in the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).


Salih Mustafa, the former KLA commander, has been charged with murder, torture, arbitrary detention and cruel treatment, prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers said on Thursday.

During the 1998-1999 conflict, the KLA was made up of ethnic Albanian rebels who sought independence for the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.

Mustafa, 48, was arrested in Kosovo and transferred to the court based in the Dutch city where he appeared before a judge and will now be detained, they said in a statement.

He is charged with crimes “against at least six people” at a detention compound in Zllash, Kosovo in April 1999.

“Moreover, it is stated that one detainee was murdered at that location,” the statement added.