Organ theft in Kosovo

BELGRADE - Almost two years since the Kosovo parliament adopted the law on the establishment of the Special War Crimes Court, Pristina was visited by recently elected special prosecutor of the court David Schwendiman, where he spoke with the Chief Prosecutor Aleksandar Ljumezi.

The Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has halted an investigation against Kosovo Police official Nihat Thaci, who was released on Tuesday.

Tanjug reported this late the same day.

Serbian Government Office for Kosovo head Marko Djuric says he hopes a new court would help rid the Kosovo public scene of people responsible for crimes.

The chief prosecutor at the new special court set up to try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for crimes during and after the war promised he would conduct his investigations fearlessly and independently.

Dick Marty has warned that "some people" who were to testify before a new court for KLA crimes "have already been killed."

The Swiss senator and former Council of Europe (CoE) Special Rapporteur, spoke a day after the killing of Bedri Curri, a former KLA member and potential witness for the court. Curri's body was found last week near Glogovac in Kosovo.

A court in Skopje extended the detention of former Kosovo guerrilla Gafurr Dugolli, who was arrested by Macedonian police over Serbian allegations that he committed war crimes.

Nigerian doctor Philip Njemanze will accept to provide evidence to Serbia and testify about human organ trafficking he said involved Hashim Thaci.

This is according to a report on Friday in Belgrade-based daily Blic.

The Nigerian Medical Association in Imo State has accused billionaire and governor Rochas Okrocha of trafficking human organs.

He is accused of doing so "with officials of Turkey and Croatia, and with Hashim Thaci."

Witnesses who will testify about the crimes committed by the ethnic Albanian KLA in Kosovo "are already in the protection program."

Many have been relocated "around the world," Belgrade-based daily Danas is reporting, adding that "the software with all the data about the cases of the (future special) court is fully protected and located in Brussels."

Former local KLA commander Sabit Geci has said that the first war crimes indictment against him also contained the name of Hashim Thaci.

This has been reported by the Pristina-based Albanian language daily Bot Sot.