Former Kosovo rebel commander Pjeter Shala was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to 18 years in prison for abuses and killings in 1999 during Pristina’s struggle for independence.
Shala, 60, also known as Commander Wolf, was a local military leader in western Kosovo during the 1998-99 independence conflict, when KLA rebels fought forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević. Judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague:
Having considered all the evidence, the panel finds you, Mr Pjeter Shala guilty … of war crimes.
The court charged Shala with four war crimes – torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of at least 18 civilian detainees accused of spying or collaborating with opposing Serb forces in mid-1999, as well as one count of murder.
However, judges acquitted him on the abuse charge and he was sentenced on the remaining three charges. The judges stated that Shala was part of a group of KLA soldiers who abused detainees at a metal factory serving as a KLA headquarters in Kukes, northeastern Albania at the time.
Shala stood trial before the Specialised Chamber for Kosovo, a court based in The Hague that prosecutes mainly former KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) fighters for war crimes. The court was established following a 2011 Council of Europe report that named KLA fighters as allegedly involved in the crimes.
