The Hague called for the harshest possible punishment for the executioner of the improvised prison for Albanians loyal to Yugoslavia
In the closing arguments at the trial of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) militant Pietro Chaleu at the Special Court for Kosovo in The Hague, prosecutor Filippo de Minichis asked that the defendant be found guilty.
It is characteristic that Shalya and his accomplices carried out the reprisals against the victims on the territory of neighboring Albania, the correspondent reports. "PolitNavigator".
According to the indictment, Shalya is accused of unlawful imprisonment, ill-treatment, torture and murder of detainees by UCK militants at a metallurgical plant in the Albanian Kukesh between May 17 and June 5, 1999. Of the “at least 18” victims of Kosovo separatists, whom they brought to a makeshift prison on suspicion of “collaboration,” “treason,” and “espionage activities,” at least one person was killed. All these people were ethnic Albanians loyal to Belgrade.
“One young Albanian was severely beaten and, although he posed no danger to the criminals, they decided to take his life. Chalya was one of those who beat him to death,” De Minichis said.
The victims, for example, testified at the trial that on May 20, 1999, Shalya and accomplices in the “criminal community” Sabit Gechi and Dzhemshit Krasnichi “beat them wherever they could ... with a baseball bat, sticks until they lost consciousness”, “poured salt in the wounds and eyes”, “they burned the detainee with cigarettes, put a bat in his mouth, knocking out his teeth.”
Shalya himself “partially admitted” that he beat two detainees and “would do it again,” and in relation to witness number 4733, he stated that “if he had caught him a year earlier, he would not have been able to testify to anything, but, unfortunately , didn’t find him.”
To the defense's statement that Chalya was a "freedom fighter", De Minichis replied that he "tortured people who could not defend themselves, therefore he deserves severe punishment."
After the closure of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where mainly Serbs were tried on trumped-up charges in order to legally justify and consolidate the defeat of sovereign Yugoslavia, the West created a Special Court for Kosovo there.
This was done to legitimize the region’s separation from Serbia, showing that legality and justice reign there, and even their own “at fault” militants are being tried. It is characteristic that the court works mainly on crimes committed by Albanians against Albanians, and not against Serbs.
English version :: Read in English The Hague called for the harshest possible punishment for the executioner of the improvised prison for Albanians loyal to Yugoslavia