In their first verdict since they were established in 2016, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) have sentenced two former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) veterans to 4.5 years in prison each for disclosing classified court information.
Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj have been in detention since they were arrested in September 2020, after a number of files containing KSC files were delivered by unidentified persons to their offices at the KLA veterans association headquarters in Prishtina.
The two veterans were charged over suspicions that they had shared information from these files with journalists in successive press conferences.
In March 2022 prosecutors demanded 6 years in prison for each.
Gucati and Haradinaj were found innocent regarding the prosecution’s charges of revenge.
During their defense, they had decried the charges and have criticized the special court and prosecution for investigating Albanians exclusively, while the vast majority of war crimes in Kosovo were committed by the Serbian genocidal government in 1998-1999.
In six years, the court has been able to sentence only Gucati and Haradinaj, while four former KLA leaders, who later held the highest positions in the newly established Kosovo state, are currently facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
