Kosovo’s President In Detention In Netherlands
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci remained in detention in the Dutch city of The Hague on Friday, after resigning to face war crimes charges.
Thaci will make his first courtroom appearance before a judge at a special Kosovo court in the Netherlands on Monday, the court said.
The 52-year-old president was a guerrilla commander during Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s.
After serving as commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Thaci rose to political prominence in the aftermath of the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people.
Thaci was flown to The Hague on Thursday, according to officials familiar with the case.
Two other former KLA officials on the plane were Kadrim Veseli, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and Rexhep Selimi, a Kosovo legislator, local media reported. Veseli said he was traveling voluntarily to face “unjust accusations.”
Former KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi, 69, who later became president of Kosovo, was detained late Thursday by police working for the European Union mission in Kosovo and taken to The Hague. He too faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
An international prosecutor indicted Thaci and the other former KLA leaders on 10 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
They are accused of illegally imprisoning, abusing, and murdering captured opponents and perceived traitors during the war.
The court, known as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, has been mandated to look into these allegations. Though based in the Netherlands, the court has an international staff working under Kosovo’s law.
Thaci has denied wrongdoing saying he “violated no international law under any circumstances.”
Back in Kosovo, officials of the Special Prosecutor’s Office raided his house near the capital Pristina and those of other indicted suspects.
The 1998-1999 Kosovo War ended after 78 days of airstrikes by the NATO military alliance against Serbian forces.
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