Witness Claims Kosovo’s ‘Commander Wolf’ Tortured His Father

The first witness in the war crimes trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala, known by the nom de guerre 'Commander Wolf', testified on Monday that his father was tortured by Shala personally at a KLA detention site at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania in 1999.

"My father was held for some time in Kukes Metal Factory, where Pjeter Shala, personally, used physical violence, electrocution, blows with axes and massive beating against my father and other detainees," the protected witness told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

He testified that his father was taken by men in KLA uniforms to the Kukes Metal Factory and held for around two weeks.

He said that his father, an ethnic Albanian, had worked as police officer in the Yugoslav police for 35 years and was a supporter of Kosovo's first President Ibrahim Rugova's peaceful movement, which became the Democratic League of Kosovo political party.

He added that father had been pressurised to take retirement in 1997 by the Yugoslav regime because he was an ethnic Albanian.

The witness said that when his father returned from the KLA detention facility, "his condition was terrible", with dried blood on his forehead.

"My father had trauma… he was destroyed because of his detention in Kukes," the witness told the court, adding that "his health deteriorated… he lost his sight".

Citing case documents, Shala's lawyer Jean-Louis Gilissen insisted however that the defendant did not give the witness's father electric shocks.

Shala has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His lawyer Gilissen had argued that the case against him is "based on hearsay".

He is accused of direct involvement in the arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and...