Kosovo Court Jails Ex-Rebel Fighter For War Crime

A court in Kosovo has sentenced a former ethnic Albanian guerrilla fighter to 18 years in prison for murdering a civilian during the 1998-99 separatist war against Serbia.

A panel of judges, two from the European Union and one from Kosovo, ruled that Fahrudin Gashi shot dead Sali Gashi on suspicion of him being a Serbian collaborator.

Another defendant, Hysri Rama, was given a six-month suspended sentence for aiding the killing.

The case was based on the confessions of Nazim Bllaca, a self-declared hit man for the former ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.

Bllaca says he took part in dozens of other killings ordered by guerrilla commanders.

compiled from agency reports