Arrest warrant requested for Drenica Group fugitives

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - EULEX Special Prosecutor Jonathan Ratel requested from a judge of the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursday to issue an arrest warrant for the three fugitive defendants who had been members of the Drenica Group, a part of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Sami Ljustaku, Sahid Jasari i Ismet Hadza escaped from the hospital in Pristina several days ago, where they were receiving treatments, and did not appear at the first hearing of the main trial that began in the Basic Court in northern Mitrovica on Thursday.

Former KLA chief commander Sulejman Seljimi and three members of this former paramilitary unit of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo - Avni Zabelji, Jahir Demaku and Sabit Geci were in the dock.

The trial is open to the public, covered by several news crews.

Defense attorneys of the three fugitives-Ljustaku, Jasari and Hadza claim that they are not on the run, but rather still in Pristina and that police did not manage to bring them for today's hearing for reasons of security.

Sami Ljustaku is president of the municipality of Srbica from the ranks of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and his defense attorney Ljuljeta Djinovci said on Tuesday that he would not accept to be transferred from hospital to a detention unit in northern Mitrovica, as he believes he would not be safe there.

Members of the KLA's Drenica Group are accused of war crimes against the civilian population, including torture, maltreatment and killing in the KLA camp in the village of Likovac in 1998.

Photo Tanjug, Boki (illustration)