apnews.com 
<https://apnews.com/article/netherlands-kosovo-serbia-kosovo-war-crime-155f7d62ad06d4ad7a7271304c20cf23>
  


Head of Kosovo veterans' association appears in court


2 minutes

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The head of an organization of Kosovo war 
veterans, who was detained last week on suspicion of offenses including 
intimidating witnesses, appeared in court Thursday for the first time since his 
arrest.

Hysni Gucati’s lawyer, Jonathan Rees, told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court 
he had already filed legal challenges to his client’s arrest and transfer to 
the Netherlands and applied for him to be released on bail.

The pretrial judge handling the case, Nicolas Guillou, did not immediately rule 
on the bail request.

Prosecutors allege that Gucati, who has not yet been indicted or charged, 
publicized court documents and intimidated witnesses in cases under 
investigation by international prosecutors probing allegations of war crimes 
and crimes against humanity linked to Kosovo’s 1998-99 war for independence 
from Serbia. 

His deputy appeared in court on Tuesday on similar allegations. The veterans’ 
association represents former ethnic Albanian separatists who fought in the war.

Gucati said there was no need for European Union security police to detain him 
last week in Kosovo.

“They could have invited me and I would have presented myself,” he told Guillou.

The first war crimes suspect indicted by the internationally funded specialist 
chambers, Salih Mustafa, appeared in the same Hague courtroom on Monday charged 
with offenses including torture and murder. 

Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia left more than 10,000 people dead — 
most of them ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. More than 1,600 people still remain 
unaccounted for. NATO air strikes against Serbian forces ended the conflict.

 

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