Kosovo’s Special Prosecution announced on Friday that it has filed an indictment against a former member of Serbia’s Security Service with the initials S.F. as a suspect in the case of the disappearance of a Kosovo Albanian doctor who went missing on April 10, 1998, the day he was arrested by Serbian police.
The Prosecution said the suspect, along with two other unidentified members of Serbia’s Security Service, that day stopped the car in which Dr Hafir Shala was travelling from Drenas/Glogocav to Pristina along with two other passengers.
“When they reached the Slatina crossroad, near Pristina airport, they were stopped by members of Serbia’s Security Service, among whom was the suspect S.F.,” the Prosecution said.
“After they were stopped, they were checked by the police, then H.Sh. was taken from S.F. and two others who were wearing civilian clothes. He got in the car which was driven by the suspect and was escorted to Security Service premises in Pristina, where he was initially subjected to beatings and torture, and nothing is known of his whereabouts since,” the Prosecution said.
On April 30, 1998, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International said it was concerned about the safety of Hafir Shala, then aged 38. “Even if he is held in unacknowledged detention, he would be at increased risk of torture or ill-treatment and, should criminal proceedings be initiated, denial of a fair trial,” Amnesty said.
This is the second indictment for war crimes in Kosovo in two days.
On Thursday, the Special Prosecution charged two suspects with the initials I.R. and D.D. with a case of rape during the Kosovo war. According to the Prosecution, both suspects were members of Serbia’s police and will be tried in absentia because they are out of reach of the Kosovo authorities.
“The suspects… in contradiction with the international rules of law, during a systemic attack by military, paramilitary and police forces against the civilian population in the territory of Pristina municipality, committed rape against a woman of Albanian nationality,” the Prosecution said. “The victim suffered heavy physical wounds and permanent psychological trauma,” it added.
Source: Balkan Insight
