Former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member Pjeter Shala attends his trial while judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers will hand down a judgment in The Hague, Netherlands, July 16 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
THE HAGUE, July 14 (Reuters) – Appeals judges at the Kosovo tribunal in The Hague confirmed the conviction of former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member Pjeter Shala for war crimes, but reduced his sentence to 13 years in prison, the court said on Monday.
Shala was initially convicted in 2024 of war crimes including torture, murder and arbitrary detention, committed as he ran a makeshift prison during the 1998-99 Kosovo uprising against Serbian troops. People considered to be spies or collaborators with Serbs were abused at the facility and at least one man was killed, the judges found.
On appeal, judges reversed several convictions for torture and arbitrary detention in relation to some victims, but confirmed convictions for the same war crimes when related to other victims.
They also found the lower chamber had not properly taken into account the fact that Shala was not in a commanding role for the murder charge, and reduced his sentence by five years.
More than 13,000 people are believed to have died during the 1998-99 Kosovo uprising against Serbian troops, led by then-president Slobodan Milosevic. The former Serbian province eventually declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade does not recognise.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a war crimes court sitting in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against fighters of the KLA.
It is separate from a U.N. tribunal, also located in The Hague, which prosecuted nationals from the former Yugoslavia over the 1990s Balkan wars, including several Serbian officials and one former KLA member for crimes committed in the Kosovo conflict.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab
Suggested Topics:
Read Next
Sixteen members of Syria’s security forces have been killed in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the defence ministry said, after they deployed to quell deadly sectarian clashes that local media reported had resumed on Monday.
Site Index
About Reuters
Stay Informed
Information you can trust
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world’s media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.