War crimes court starts 1st witness intimidation trial

Reuters ^ | April 25, 2005

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AMSTERDAM, April 25 (Reuters) - A Kosovo Albanian went on trial on Monday on charges of intimidating witnesses, the first such case at The Hague war crimes tribunal.

The charges against Beqa Beqaj relate to a case against Isak Musliu, an accused commander of a former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) prison camp where some inmates were tortured.

Beqaj faces seven years in jail if convicted. He was secretly indicted last year and transferred to the custody of the tribunal after being arrested by U.N. forces in Kosovo.

Beqaj had already pleaded not guilty at his initial appearance last November and protested his innocence again on Monday: "This is all a lie," he said. "I am imprisoned in the same room as Serbs. I don't see any justice here."

Beqaj is accused of intimidating or offering bribes to witnesses in cases against Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala and Isak Musliu.

The three are accused of commanding KLA soldiers and guards at the Lapusnik prison camp in Kosovo during the KLA's guerrilla campaign against the Yugoslavia government in 1998-99.

The court said Lapusnik prison held Serbian civilians and suspected Albanian collaborators, some of whom were assaulted and tortured.

The United Nations took control of the Kosovo province in June 1999 after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops.

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This is a trial about the KLA torturing other Albanians, and the witnesses have been threatened, which is the usual for these types of trials.

Wraith was a British soldier serving in Pristina during 1999 and 2000 and he said the greatest danger to Albanians when he was there, just after the war, was the KLA intent on liquidating and threatening Albanian witnesses.

The KLA did abduct many Albanians, some of whom were killed, and others which have never been seen again.