Hague Prosecutors Criticise Kosovo War Veterans over Document Leaks

The Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office, which is probing wartime and post-war crimes, said on Tuesday that the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Organisation, which claims to have received three sets of leaked court documents this month, has been acting against the interests of justice.

The KLA War Veterans' Organisation "has on a number of occasions engaged in activities which I believe are aimed at undermining the proper administration of justice", Specialist Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Christopher Bennett said in a statement.

The statement was issued after the War Veterans' Organisation said it received an anonymous delivery on Tuesday of a third set of documents that it alleged are from the so-called Special Court.

The head of the War Veterans' Organisation, Hysni Gucati, said the documents include several indictments that mention names that should not be made public.

Gucati told KTV that the Special Court is biased against Kosovo Albanians and accused it of incompetence.

"This court has lost credibility when documentation comes out of it," Gucati said.

Since it received the first leaked documents in early September, the War Veterans' Organisation has constantly urged media to publish them, but so far no outlet in Kosovo has done so.

The Specialist Prosecutor's Office meanwhile commended Kosovo journalists for refusing to publish the documents, "as well as the multiple journalists who have voluntarily provided us with the documents they received from the KLA War Veterans' Association and publicly acknowledged that participating in disseminating such information could be a crime under the Kosovo Criminal Code".

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