Kosovo Liberation Army

On April 3, the four wartime leaders will be together again, this time before the prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague courtroom to hear the charges against them read out in the courtroom as their trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity begins.

The first witness in the war crimes trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala, known by the nom de guerre 'Commander Wolf', testified on Monday that his father was tortured by Shala personally at a KLA detention site at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania in 1999.

"On March 24, I noticed that my parents were worried more than ever. It was an anxious day. My father did not have to go to work," Dimitrijevic told BIRN. "In the evening we heard that the bombing had started and there were explosions."

The prosecution's presentation of evidence in the case against former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other former senior Kosovo Liberation Army, KA guerrillas at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague could go on for six-and-a-half years, presiding judge Charles Smith III told a case status conference at the court on Monday.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague has published a less redacted version of the indictment of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who goes on trial with three other Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA ex-officers next month, giving more details of the war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against them.

The appeals panel at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Thursday upheld the convictions of the former leader and deputy leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Organisation, Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, but reduced their sentences by three months.

Special prosecutor Ilir Morina told BIRN Kosovo's 'Kallxo Pernime' TV programme on Wednesday evening that the former commander of Serbian police special forces, Goran 'Guri' Radosavljevic, is one of the suspects wanted for the Recak/Racak massacre on January 15, 1999.

"As far as the Kosovo state prosecution knows, he is in Serbia," Morina said.

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Monday he had no additional information on arrest warrants issued for 18 Serbs by the so-called Kosovo's prosecution office because relations with Pristina were not a part of foreign affairs.

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.