Posted on 11/09/2005 1:14:43 PM PST by joan
Released : Nov 07, 2005 6:44 AM
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-A former Kosovo rebel commander who is charged with war crimes committed against fellow ethnic Albanians will join the leading opposition party in the province, a party statement said Monday.
Rrustem Mustafa, known as Commander Remi, will join the Democratic Party of Kosovo, which is headed by former rebel leader-turned-politician Hashim Thaci.
Mustafa was sentenced in 2003 by the U.N.-run court in Kosovo to 17 years imprisonment for ordering the killings, illegal arrest and torture of fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serb regime.
Kosovo's Supreme Court overruled that verdict and ordered a retrial of Mustafa and three of his wartime associates. Their retrial is likely to start next year, one of the lawyers involved in the case said.
Mustafa was one of the most senior former commanders in the now-defunct Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla force that fought against Serb forces in the province's 1998-1999 war. The three others served under his command in that zone.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since the end of the war in 1999.
The four were the first former ethnic Albanian rebels convicted of war crimes in the province. The case was handled by U.N.-appointed judges and prosecutors.
The court decided to release the four from prison to await retrial on condition they stay in Kosovo and do not contact witnesses involved in the case or witnesses' families.
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When will we finally go back to backing the serbs?
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