Two arrested for witness tampering at special Kosovo court

Two arrested for witness tampering at special Kosovo court

World

Two arrested for witness tampering at special Kosovo court

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A special Hague-based court set up to try Kosovo war crimes said on Friday that two men accused of witness tampering had been arrested and transferred to it.

The men were named as Ismet Bahtjari and Sabit Januzi but no details were given about the case they allegedly interfered with.

A press release from the prosecutor of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers only said there was suspicion the pair tried to dissuade a witness from testifying before the court.

The most high-profile case at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague is that of former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci.

Thaci, the former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, faces 10 charges of persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearance of people during and shortly after the 1998-99 insurgency that eventually brought Kosovo independence from Serbia and made him a hero among many compatriots at home and abroad.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, seated in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas.