Kosovo's Thaci 'not immune from war crimes prosecution'
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Schwendiman the chief prosecutor at the new court being set up to try Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for alleged crimes during and after the 1999 war told BIRN on Friday that no one was immune from prosecution for violations of international humanitarian law.
“We can only reiterate that under international law there is no amnesty for anyone for violations of international humanitarian law” Schwendiman said when asked about Thaci.
“This is also made clear in the law on the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office [that was passed by Kosovo’s parliament]” he added.
Schwendiman was the lead prosecutor of the EU’s Special Investigative Task Force SITF which has been probing claims in a Council of Europe report about alleged crimes by KLA fighters.
The 2011 Council of Europe which claimed that KLA guerrillas committed crimes against civilians such as kidnapping torture and organ-harvesting.
The report also implicated Thaci who was the political head of the KLA during its armed conflict with Serbian forces.
Thaci who was elected president by the Kosovo parliament at the weekend has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Schwendiman said that the SITF’s investigations were still continuing but declined to comment on any specific details.
The new court which is officially called the Kosovo Specialist Chambers will be located in the former Europol building in The Hague.
The court which is made up of international judges will operate under Kosovo law. This means it will not be an international tribunal but a Kosovo court that administers justice outside the country.
It is expected to start operating later this year.
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