Prosecutors Allege Murder, Torture As Hague War-Crimes Trial Opens Of Former Kosovo Fighter

Prosecutors accused former Kosovo Liberation Army fighter Pjeter Shala of the murder of one person and the illegal captivity and torture of nearly 20 others during Kosovo's war of independence from Serbia, as his war crimes trial began in The Hague on February 21. Shala, arrested two years ago in Belgium, has pleaded not guilty at the EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which is based in the Netherlands but is part of Kosovo's legal system. The U.S. attorney who heads the prosecutor's office argued to the three-judge panel that there was sufficient evidence to convict Shala despite what he called a climate of witness intimidation in Kosovo. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, click here.