Salih Mustafa

Officials in Pristina have yet to publicly respond since the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague urged Kosovo to create a new reparation mechanism for war crimes victims in order to ensure "equal treatment between the suspects and accused".

A panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague decided on Thursday that Salih Mustafa, the wartime commander of one of the Kosovo Liberation Army's operational zones should pay 207,000 euros in compensation "for the harm inflicted on the victims of the crimes for which he is convicted".

Former Kosovo Liberation Army unit chief Salih Mustafa's lawyer asked the Hague-based war crimes court to acquit his client, arguing that the evidence didn't prove that he illegally detained, tortured and killed prisoners in 1999.

The victims' legal counsel at the Hague trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army unit chief Salih Mustafa, accused of illegally detaining, torturing and killing prisoners in 1999, backed the prosecution's call for a 35-year sentence.

Closing statements are continuing this week in the Hague trial of former KLA commander Salih Mustafa.

This is because, according to the law, courts should instruct victims in war crime trials to claim compensation in civil proceedings. But this is complicated, officials say.

Compensation from the state can be requested if the victim is unable to get restitution from the convicted defendant or from other sources.

The judging panel in the case against former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Salih Mustafa at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers issued a ruling last year about compensation for victims which noted that Kosovo's Law on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers does not set specific criteria for how compensation can be obtained.

A protected witness told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday that he saw five or six people beating a prisoner who was being held in an improvised detention facility in the village of Zllash/Zlas, some 30 kilometres east of Kosovo's capital Pristina, during the war in 1999.

A protected witness told the trial of Salih Mustafa at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Monday that he was detained for 17 days in a cowshed in the village of Zllash/Zlas, some 30 kilometres east of Kosovo's capital Pristina, during the war in 1999.

In his second day of testimony at the trial of Salih Mustafa at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, a protected witness codenamed 3593 spoke about the conditions in which he was held at a Kosovo Liberation Army detention centre, and said he deserves compensation.