Association of Serb victims of Kosovo war objected to the decision of Pristina’s court to release ten KLA fighters accused of war crimes against Serbs in Klecka camp in 1999.
The families of around 520 missing Serbs and non Albanians from the Kosovo conflict of 1999 received the news about the release of Fatmir Limaj’s and other nine Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, fighters with a great deal of consternation.
“The families of the victims are particularly worried and discouraged about the explanation of a Kosovo court that there is no evidence that will prove that Limaj’s group committed crimes in Klecka camp,” says the announcement from the 'Association of Kidnapped and Killed in Kosovo and Metohija'.
They also asked the international community, EULEX, UNMIK and the Hague Tribunal to explain how it is possible that all the witnesses in the cases against Albanians accused of war crimes against Serbs have either been killed, or died under mysterious circumstances or have disappeared without a trace.
The indictment against Limaj and the other nine defendants had charged them with committing various war crimes at an improvised detention center in the village of Klecka, in the Drenica region of Kosovo.
A Kosovo court has released ten former KLA fighters on Wednesday, after the diaries of the deceased witness, Agim Zogaj, were ruled inadmissible.
The presiding judge, Jonathan Welford-Carroll, in his ruling said that the prosecution could not build a case with only one witness, who at the time of testifying was a suspect in the case.
Zogaj was a prison guard at Klecka camp in Kosovo in 1999 and his diaries about the events that happened there were crucial to the prosecution’s case.
Zogaj committed suicide last September in Germany just as the trial of the ten men was set to start.
Limaj, a former KLA commander, is currently vice-president of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by the Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, and an MP in parliament.
The prosecution and defence teams in the Klecka case are due to submit their final statements before the verdict is pronounced.
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Timeline of events in the case against 13 former Serb fighters charged with committing war crimes in the villages of Cuska, Zahac, Ljubenic and Pavlac in Kosovo in 1999.