Kosovo FM Accused of Interfering With Justice

Dutch ambassador Robert Bosch told newspaper Kosovo Sot on Thursday that Thaci's claim that the verdict convicting the ex-guerrillas was politically motivated was inappropriate.

"Officials should never comment on the decision of the court," said Bosch.

Eleven members of the KLA's wartime Drenica Group cell, including the current mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica, Sami Lushtaku, and the former Kosovo Ambasador to Albania, Sylejman Selimi, were convicted last month of a series of crimes including torturing and abusing prisoners.

But Thaci, who was the head of the political wing of the KLA during the 1998-99 conflict, wrote on Facebook last week that the verdict "an attempt to tarnish the just war of the KLA".

He that justice had always been "the goal of the freedom fighters" but that "the verdict on the Drenica Group puts this goal in question, and not only tarnishes the KLA but also justice itself".

The verdict sparked a protest by hundreds of veterans of the Kosovo war who blocked the man road from Pristina to the town of Peja/Pec to express their anger.

But Cezary Michalczuk, an EU prosecutor who investigated the case, denied the verdict was politically motivated.

"This was a judicial process and has nothing to do with politics or with positions of certain people in society in political life in Kosovo," Michalczuk said.