KLA's Llapi group found guilty of war crimes

The three defendants stood accused of having ordered and participated in the beating and torture of Kosovo Albanian civilians who were illegally detained in the detention center Llapashtica in 1998 and 1999, EULEX said in a release on Friday. The panel of judges, taking into consideration the separate punishment that was issued to the defendants before by the District Court of Pristina in October 2009 and upheld by the Supreme Court of Kosovo in January 2011, sentenced Latif Gasi to a total of six years imprisonment, Nazif Mehmeti to three years imprisonment, and Rustem Mustafa to four years imprisonment. EULEX prosecutor from Kosovo's Special Prosecution Office (SPRK) Charles Hardaway welcomed the verdict. "This was the last piece of a case that finally came to a conclusion. The defendants today were found guilty for beating and torturing the detainees at the Llapashtica detention center," said Hardaway. It must be clear that the KLA was not on trial here, the defendants were. It is paramount to understand that guilt is individual, not collective and the court rightly found that these individuals committed unlawful actions, he said. All three defendants already stand convicted of war crimes in relation to the inhumane conditions at the detention center at Llapashtica. Latif Gasi also already stands convicted of war crimes in the beating and torture of Serb Milovan Stankovic. Many of the detainees at Llapashtica were mistreated terribly, and even though many years have passed since these dreadful events occurred, it is still vitally important that the victims and their families receive justice. And I believe justice for them has been delivered today, said Hardaway.