12 Nov 14
A witness told the trial of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s ‘Drenica Group’ cell, accused of assaulting prisoners during the 1998-99 war, that politician Sami Lushtaku carried out a revenge murder.

Petrit Collaku
BIRN
Mitrovica
Lushtaku (right) and his lawyer.

The protected witness codenamed ‘D’ told the court in Mitrovica on Wednesday that Lushtaku, who is now the mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica in Kosovo, murdered a man in 1998 out of revenge because the victim killed his cousin.

Testifying via video link, the witness said that he was with Lushtaku on the day of the killing, which happened somewhere between the villages of Dubovc and Galic on August 31 or September 1, 1998.

The victim, who had been brought there by two KLA guerrillas, was tied up and kneeling, and begged for his life before he was shot. “Don’t kill me, please,” he said, according to the witness.

Lushtaku then shot the man three times in the head and the soldiers took the body away, the witness said.

“It was a terrifying moment for me. It happened very quickly. I could not do anything to stop him,” he said.

He said that Lushtaku was very nervous afterwards and explained the reason for killing the man.

“I killed him because he killed my cousin, Adem Lushtaku,” Lushtaku said, according to the witness’s testimony.

Lushtaku is on trial for allegedly killing one man and mistreating prisoners at a KLA wartime detention centre in Likovc/Likovac in 1998.

Also on trial for abuses at the detention centre are Pristina’s former ambassador to Albania and Kosovo Security Force ex-commander Sylejman Selimi, as well as five other former KLA fighters.