Kosovo Arrests Fugitive Ex-Guerrilla Commander

Fugitive former Kosovo Liberation Army unit commander Remzi Shala, known during wartime as 'The Red Apple', appeared in court in Prizren on Friday after being arrested, but denied he was trying to evade justice.

Shala is a suspect in the kidnapping in 1998 of an ethnic Albanian man who was subsequently killed, and was initially supposed to appear in court in Prizren on January 9.

He was also invited for interview by the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Prosecution, which is probing alleged wartime and post-war crimes by former Kosovo Liberation Army members, on January 17.

However he did not appear in Prizren or The Hague, and went into hiding in Albania.

The court in Prizren issued a warrant for his arrest.

But Shala insisted he never intended to dodge justice.

"You know that I would never escape from our judicial systems. I knew about the session of January 9, but in the meantime something happened. [EU rule-of-law mission] EULEX [officials] came to my house, in front of the main door, without uniforms and they behaved very badly with me," he told the court.

He alleged that the EULEX officials "put me in the car and forced me to take some papers for the [Hague-based] Special Court and sign them, and go there on January 17 at 9am".

The allegations could not be independently verified.

Shala is accused by the Kosovo authorities of the kidnapping of a man called Haxhi Perteshi from the village of Duhla in the Suhareka/Suva Reka area, who was found dead some days later.

He has denied committing the crime.

Shala told BIRN in January that he would not appear for the interview in The Hague because he does not trust the Kosovo Specialist Chambers - the so-called 'Special Court' which is expected to try former...