Gnjilane Group trial postponed

The trial of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army’s Gnjilane Group was postponed today before the Belgrade High Court’s war crimes chamber. The presiding judge made the decision due to illness of one of the accused. The trial will resume on Feb. 8, 9 and 10, with testimonies from protected witnesses. Gnjilane Group trial postponed The group is accused of torturing and brutally killing Serb, other non-Albanian and some Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999. According to the indictment, this KLA group, arrested in Presevo in late 2008, is accused of brutally killing at least 80 civilians and physically abusing at least 153, in between June and December 1999, while 53 persons are still registered as missing. A total of 17 members of the group are accused of imprisoning, robbing, torturing, abusing, raping and brutally killing Serb, non-Albanian and Albanian civilians. Eight of them are still at large and are being tried in absentia. The indictment states that they broke the fingers of civilians with pipes, pulled out their nails and teeth, stabbed their tongues with knives, nailed lighters through the openings in the skulls of their victims, strangled them with bags and barbed wire, cut their genitalia off with machetes, slit their throats with knives and raped most of the women. In order to hide the crimes, they cut the bodies into small pieces with axes and handsaws, put them in bags and threw them into a garbage disposal, while the bodies of some were thrown through the window and into the Livocko Lake. The accused are ethnic Albanians Agus Memisi, Faton Hajdari, Ahmet Hasani, Nazif Hasani, Samet Hajdari, Ferat Hajdari, Kamber Sahiti, Selimon Sadiku and Burim Fazliju. The leaders Fazlia Ajdari, Redzep Aliji and Sacip Saciri are still at large, along with Sefket Musliji, Sadik Aliji, Idriz Aliji, Semsija Nuhiju and Ramadan Halimi.

Gnjilane Group trial postponed

The group is accused of torturing and brutally killing Serb, other non-Albanian and some Albanian civilians in Kosovo in 1999.

According to the indictment, this KLA group, arrested in Preševo in late 2008, is accused of brutally killing at least 80 civilians and physically abusing at least 153, in between June and December 1999, while 53 persons are still registered as missing.

A total of 17 members of the group are accused of imprisoning, robbing, torturing, abusing, raping and brutally killing Serb, non-Albanian and Albanian civilians. Eight of them are still at large and are being tried in absentia.

The indictment states that they broke the fingers of civilians with pipes, pulled out their nails and teeth, stabbed their tongues with knives, nailed lighters through the openings in the skulls of their victims, strangled them with bags and barbed wire, cut their genitalia off with machetes, slit their throats with knives and raped most of the women.

In order to hide the crimes, they cut the bodies into small pieces with axes and handsaws, put them in bags and threw them into a garbage disposal, while the bodies of some were thrown through the window and into the Livočko Lake.

The accused are ethnic Albanians Agus Memisi, Faton Hajdari, Ahmet Hasani, Nazif Hasani, Samet Hajdari, Ferat Hajdari, Kamber Sahiti, Selimon Sadiku and Burim Fazliju.

The leaders Fazlia Ajdari, Redzep Aliji and Sacip Saciri are still at large, along with Sefket Musliji, Sadik Aliji, Idriz Aliji, Semsija Nuhiju and Ramadan Halimi.