Salih Mustafa has been arrested in Kosovo by the Special Prosecutor’s Office after an arrest warrant was issued by a pre-trial judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.
In addition to the arrest warrant, a transfer order and confirmed indictment was also issued. He will be transferred to the Detention Facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague and will appear before a judge at the first available opportunity.
As per the Law on Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, police within the Office have the authority to exercise powers given to the Kosovo police. It also provides that anyone with a confirmed indictment and pursuant to an arrest warrant from the Specialist Chambers can be taken into custody.
This is the first arrest by the Hague-based court that was set up to try suspects for crimes committed during and after the Kosovo war.
Details of the charges against Mustafa who was a wartime commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army, haven’t been published.
The European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) provided operational and logistic support to the Office for today’s arrest.
The arrest comes after the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans’ Association claimed to have been anonymously delivered thousands of leaked documents from Hague prosecutors. They asked the media in Kosovo to publish the documents but so far, none have done so.
In Albania, Top Channel has said they have an official summary of investigations and will publish some parts of it.
