01 Oct 14
Judges in the trial of guerrilla commander turned politician Fatmir Limaj and nine other ex-fighters accused of abuses at the wartime Klecka detention centre were disqualified after claims of bias.

Petrit Collaku
BIRN
Pristina

The court of appeal in Pristina on Wednesday disqualified the trio of judges in the high-profile Klecka war crimes case after the defence team claimed that they were biased against the former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas on trial.

The case was interrupted on September 18 when the defence sought the disqualification of the judges because it said that the three judges did not perform their job properly and assumed the role of the prosecutor when questioning a witness.

The defence lawyers had also said that the panel of judges should consist of two local judges and one international, according to Kosovo’s new law governing the role of the EU rule-of-law mission in the country.

Kosovo’s appeals court last month reopened the case against Limaj and nine other ex-fighters accused of abusing prisoners at the wartime Klecka detention centre.

Limaj’s acquittal of the Klecka charges in September 2013 was the second time that the prominent MP and former KLA guerrilla known as ‘Commander Steel’ was found not guilty of the wartime abuses.

According to the indictment against Limaj and the nine others, Albanian civilians suspected of collaboration with the Serbian regime, Serbian civilians and Serbian police and military personnel were imprisoned at Klecka, which also served as a detention centre for KLA soldiers investigated or sentenced for disciplinary offences.

Limaj was also acquitted by the Hague Tribunal in 2005 of war crimes against Serbs and Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serbia during the Kosovo conflict.

In March this year, he and former KLA secretary Jakup Krasniqi established a new political party, the Initiative for Kosovo (Nisma per Kosoven) party. It won six seats in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament in polls in June this year.