Kosovo Ex-Commander Lushtaku Cleared of War Crimes
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| Sami Lushtaku. Archive photo: Atdhe Mulla/BIRN. |
The Supreme Court in Pristina on Monday acquitted former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Sami Lushtaku of war crimes, his lawyer Arianit Koci told BIRN.
Lushtaku had appealed to the Supreme Court, alongside two other former senior members of the KLA’s so-called ‘Drenica Group’ who had also been convicted of war crimes, Sylejman Selimi and Jahir Demaku.
It is not yet clear what the court decided in Selimi and Demaku’s cases.
“I still do not have any decision,” Demaku’s lawyer Mexhid Syla told BIRN.
“I still do not know who is released,” Selimi’s lawyer Tome Gashi told BIRN.
Lushtaku, who was the mayor of the Kosovo town of Skenderaj/Srbica, was sentenced in 2015 to 12 years in prison by the Basic Court in Mitrovica for a murder committed in 1998, although the victim’s name was unknown and no body was found.
He was cleared on appeal in 2016 but his conviction for “command responsibility for allegedly violating the [bodily] integrity and health of an undefined number of civilian Albanians held at the Likovc detention centre” was upheld.
His sentence was reduced from 12 to seven years in prison by the Appeals Court.
