Former Kosovo rebel commander gets 18 years for war crimes

THE HAGUE: A former Kosovo rebel commander was found guilty of war crimes on Tuesday and sentenced to 18 years behind bars for abuses and murder in 1999 during Pristina’s independence struggle.

Pjeter Shala, 60, also known as “Commander Wolf”, was a local military leader in western Kosovo during the tiny country’s 1998-99 independence conflict when separatist KLA rebels fought forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, the court said.

“Having considered all the evidence, the panel finds you, Mr Pjeter Shala guilty... of war crimes,” Judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, adding he was sentenced to 18 years.

Drama erupted in the courtroom after Shala -- dressed in a black suit, white shirt and purple tie -- started loudly talking to the judges during sentencing and had to be silenced by the judge. He eventually calmed down after speaking briefly to his defence lawyers.

It was not immediately clear whether Shala’s lawyers will appeal, but they have 30 days to do so. He pleaded not guilty. Shala faced four war crimes charges -- torture, arbitrary detention and cruel treatment of at least 18 civilian detainees accused of working as spies or collaborating with opposing Serb forces in mid-1999, as well as one charge of murder.

The judges however acquitted him in the charge of cruel treatment and he was sentenced on the other three counts. The judges said Shala was part of a group of KLA soldiers who severely mistreated detainees at a metal factory serving as a KLA headquarters in Kukes, northeastern Albania at the time. There the KLA members held other Kosovar Albanians prison whom they accused of “aiding” enemy Serb forces -- “or not being sufficiently sympathetic” to the KLA cause.