Prosecutors Add More War Crime Charges Against Kosovo Ex-President

The Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office has added fresh war crime charges to the indictment of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other guerilla Kosovo Liberation Army leaders turned politicians who have been awaiting the trial in detention in The Hague since November 2020.

The updated indictment says that between July 1998 and September 1998 and around April 28 or 29, 1999, certain KLA members detained at least 12 persons without due process of law in the village of Budakova/Budakovo in Kosovo's southern municipality of Suhareka/Suva Reka.

"Detainees, who were held for varying periods of time, were physically restrained, and held in locked rooms and under armed guard. Immediately following detention in Budakova/Budakovo, at least one of the detainees was transferred to Semetishta/Semetiste and also detained there between around 19 to 20 August 1998," the updated indictment says.

"Detainees were hit all over their bodies. Detainees, including atleast one LDK [Democratic League of Kosovo political party] supporter, were interrogated about and accused of associating, collaborating, or assisting Serbs and Serbian authorities," it adds.

The updated indictment also says that in late June and July 1999, certain KLA members detained at least three people without due process of law at a guerrilla headquarters located in a former boarding school and dormitory in the eastern town of Gjilan/Gnjilane and subjected them to severe beatings and psychological abuse.

"Detainees were hit all over their bodies with sticks and batons, kicked, punched, and/or otherwise threatened with violence and death. Detainees could hear and see the severe abuse of other detainees. The detainees, who were of Serb ethnicity, were insulted and...