Salustro: Zogaj Primary Source in Klecka Trial

In the last session of the main hearing regarding the admissibility of Agim Zogaj’s testimony, Pristina’s District Court requested that  both parties present written statements about the case.

The EU rule of law mission to Kosovo, EULEX, judge, Dean Pinales, asked the Special Prosecutor, Maurizio Salustro, to answer by March 13 whether he has a case without the testimony of Agim Zogaj, also known as "Witness X".

“It would be childish not to accept that without Witness X’s statements we would not be here. They were the primary source,” Salustro told the court on Wednesday.

Agim Zogaj was a prison guard at the Klecka prison and his diary about events there is key to the prosecution’s case against his alleged commander Fatmir Limaj and nine other Kosovo Liberation Army fighters. 

All ten deny committing war crimes against Serbs and Albanians at the Klecka detention centre in 1999.

Fatmir Limaj is also being investigated by EULEX on charges of corruption, which he denies.

In April 2010, EULEX raided the ministry of transport during his tenure as minister. That investigation relates to road construction tenders issued between 2007 and 2009.

On Wednesday, Limaj’s lawyer, Karim Khan, accused the prosecutor Maurizio Salustro of having gathered all the evidence in the Klecka case illegally. At the time EULEX raided Fatmir Limaj’s property it was investigating the corruption case.

“According to the search warrant, issued by the judge Ferdinando Buatier de Mongeot, for three locations - Limaj’s apartment, his office at the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications and his house at the village of Banja e Malisheves - only the documents relating to his work at the ministry could have been confiscated,” Khan argued.

Khan also argued that the Special Prosecutor had built his case without a court warrant relating to suspicion of war crimes.

“He was not authorized to raid the house for war crimes. Why did the prosecutor confiscate photos of the war, military uniforms? This raises concerns that the prosecutor has abused the process,” Fatmir Limaj’s lawyer said.

Fatmir Limaj has already been tried and acquitted by the Hague Tribunal in 2007, for war crimes committed in another prison camp.

Pristina District Court is expected to decide later this month whether or not the testimony of Agim Zogaj is relevant to the trial. The trial will resume on Tuesday, March 13.