Protected witness takes stand at Haradinaj trial

Protected witness takes stand at Haradinaj trial

According to the indictment, the headquarters of the Black Eagles, a KLA special unit, was located in Rznić.

The prosecution argued that the accused Idriz Balaj, also known as Toger – lieutenant in Albanian – commanded the Black Eagles.

In 1997, after his father died, his family was targeted by the KLA, the witness said. He was only thirteen at the time. The KLA targeted them because they were friends with a Serbian police officer by the name of Praščević.

The police officer was killed in March 1998 in the village where the witness lived with his family. The witness’s mother was injured in the attack and spent several weeks in the Dečani hospital.

In late April or early May 1998, masked KLA soldiers in black uniforms took away witness’s sister, ‘S’, he said. She was forcibly mobilized, he explained.

The sister visited the family only twice after that, always accompanied by KLA soldiers. The witness identified one of them as Toger. The sister was also in a black KLA uniform, but she was not armed.

She told her mother “not to ask her anything, because she couldn’t say anything”. After the second visit, she disappeared and is still missing.

Several months later, KLA soldiers once more came to the witness’ house at night and took away the witness’s other sister, ‘M’. Witness 19 again saw among them Toger – the accused Balaj.

Her body was found a couple of days later in the forest with gunshot wounds in the head and a number of cuts to the throat and chest. After she was buried, the witness and the remaining members of his family left the village in fear for their lives.

At the end of his examination-in chief, presiding judge Orie asked the prosecution if there was any evidence to corroborate that “the person the witness mentioned who has the same name as one of the accused really is the accused”.

The prosecutor replied that it would become clear once other evidence has been called. However, he did not know if the investigators who had interviewed the witness in 2004 and 2005 had showed him a set of photographs to identify Balaj.

Judges found this claim peculiar and asked the witness whether he was shown a series of photographs in the course of his interviews. The witness confirmed this, saying that he was able to identify Toger – meaning Balaj – among a dozen or so photographs he was shown.

After that, the court heard the testimony of the interpreter who had been present at the witness’s interview in Priština. The interpreter was heard in closed session. The investigator who conducted the interview will be examined later.

Judge Orie summarized the current situation regarding this witness, saying,  “based on the witness’s evidence it is impossible to effect a positive identification of the accused. The reasons for it may be that the identification was not attempted or was attempted but there is no evidence to show if it was positive or negative”.

According to the pre-trial brief filed by the prosecution, this witness “positively identified” the accused Idriz Balaj a.k.a Toger on a photo board he was shown during his interview.

The examination of Witness 19 will be concluded on Monday. After that, Witness 04 will speak about the same incidents.