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| Europe |
| Albanian goes on trial at The Hague |
| 2005-04-25 |
| 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. |
| Posted by:seafarious |