A former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) was today sentenced to 18 years in prison for war crimes committed during the Kosovar independence rebellion against Serbian forces in the late 1990s.
The Special Court for Kosovo (TEK), based in The Hague, Netherlands, convicted Pjeter Shala on charges of arbitrary detention, acts of torture and murder committed against at least 18 civilians at the Kukes Metal Plant in Albania.
The 18 victims, mostly Kosovar Albanians, were arrested, interrogated and tortured for allegedly collaborating with Serbia or opposing UÇK activities. At least one of the detainees was murdered.
Shala, 60, also known as "Comandante Lobo", was detained in Belgium in March 2021. Sentenced to a single sentence, he was acquitted of the crime of "cruel treatment".
The TEK, funded by the European Union (EU), is a Kosovar law body made up of international judges that investigates war crimes committed by the UÇK during the conflict.
The clashes, between 1998 and 1999, caused around 13,000 deaths and ended when Serbian forces withdrew from the former province with a majority Albanian population after a NATO bombing campaign that lasted 11 weeks.
The judicial body has already issued accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity against several senior UÇK officials, including the former President of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi (2016-2020), who resigned after being indicted.
In December 2022, the court issued its first verdict for war crimes by sentencing a former commander of the armed separatist movement, Salih Mustafa, who ran a torture center, to 26 years in prison.
