Three ex-KLA members accused of war crimes escape

Three ex-KLA members accused of war crimes escape

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- A judge of the Basic Court in Northern Mitrovica has been asked to issue an arrest warrant for three fugitive defendants, former members of "the Drenica Group."

The group was a part of the now disbanded ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)", and the request on Thursday came from chief of Kosovo's Special Prosecution Office Jonathan Ratel.

Later in the day, the Kosovo police announced that "immediately upon learning that several suspects from the so-called Drenica Group had escaped from the Clinical Hospital Center in Priština, a search for them was launched."

Beta reports that the Kosovo police in this way "indirectly confirmed" that Sami Lushtaku, Ismet Haxha, and Salit Jashari had escaped from the hospital where they were receiving treatment.

Tanjug said that the three escaped "several days ago," and thus failed to show up in the courtroom in Kosovska Mitrovica today, where the first hearing of the main trial was held.

Former KLA commander Sulejman Selimi and three other defendants - Avni Zabeli, Jahir Demaku and Sabit Geci were in the dock.

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

Defense attorneys for the three fugitives claimed this morniing that their clients were not on the run, but instead "still in Priština," and that the police did not manage to bring them to the hearing "for reasons of security."

Lushtaku is president of the municipality of Srbica from the ranks of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and his defense lawyer said on Tuesday that he would not accept to be transferred from the hospital to a detention unit in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, as...