18 Nov 14
A protected witness told the court on Monday that Hashim Thaci personally told Sylejman Selimi and other defendants in the so-called Drenica Group trial to kill alleged collaborators with the Serbian authorities.

Petrit Collaku, Behar Mustafa
BIRN
Pristina, Mitrovica

A protected witness, codenamed Witness A, told the Basic Court in Mitrovica on Monday that Hashim Thaci, current Prime Minister of Kosovo, directly ordered Sylejman Selimi "to kill these people" - meaning alleged collaborators with the Serbian government.

The witness further said that Selimi had told him that the US was paying them to murder the alleged collaborators.

“Here in this court you said that the persons you allege beat you in Likovc told you that they were paid by America to murder spies. Have you said so?” lawyer Guy Smith asked the witness.

“Yes, sir,” the witness replied.

“Who told you this?”, the lawyer continued.

“I was told by Sylejman Selimi, Hysni Thaci, Zeqir Demaku and Jahir Demaku. They told me that they each got 500 German marks a month to murder the spies,” the witness added.

Sylejman Selimi today is the ambassador of Kosovo to Albania and was a former commander of the Kosovo Protection Corp.

EULEX presiding judge Darius Sielicki later asked the witness to describe the detention room in Likovc where he was allegedly mistreated and saw the ten defendants.

Witness A said he knew these persons from earlier and had no difficult in identifying them.

The 15 men are accused of torturing and mistreating prisoners at a KLA detention centre in Likovc/Likovac in 1998. The defendants deny the charges.

The other accused are: Agim Demaj, Bashkim Demaj, Driton Demaj, Selman Demaj, Fadil Demaku, Jahir Demaku, Nexhat Demaku, Zeqir Demaku, Sabit Geci, Ismet Haxha, Sahit Jashari, Isni Thaci and Avni Zabeli.