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Kosovo War Crimes Court Convicts Former Guerrilla Fighter


Kosovo's special war crimes court has convicted a former ethnic Albanian guerrilla fighter of war crimes against civilians after the country's war ended.

A statement released on August 8 by the court's international judges sentenced Xhemshit Krasniqi to eight years in prison for crimes committed in 1999 in Albania and Kosovo.

A Council of Europe report in 2010 claimed that leaders of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Serbs, Roma, and ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbs.

The report said this happened during the summer of 1999, after NATO's 78-day bombing forced Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo.

The special court staffed with international jurors was set up as a way to insulate the court from accusations of bias from either Kosovars or Serbs.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

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