THE HAGUE: A special appeals court Monday reduced by five years the jail term for a Kosovo rebel nicknamed “Commander Wolf” convicted of torture and murder in 1999 during Pristina’s independence struggle.
Pjeter Shala, 62, was sentenced last year to 18 years behind bars for one count of murder and the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 people at a disused metal works factory used by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
The appeals court cut the sentence to 13 years.
The court said the original sentencing was “out of reasonable proportion to comparable cases” and that insufficient weight was given to the fact he did not hold a leadership role in the KLA.
In addition, no in-court evidence was given to support his conviction for torturing five of the 18 people, or arbitrarily detaining two of the group.
“The reduction in his sentence in no way suggests that the crimes for which he has been convicted and sentenced are not grave,“ judge Kai Ambos told the court.
Shala followed the hearing by videolink, dressed in a light blue shirt and tie.
He initially refused to stand when the verdict was being read, prompting a short adjournment.
When the decision was finally read out, he shook his head repeatedly and appeared to be speaking but his words were not broadcast.
In May and June 1999, Shala interrogated and tortured civilian detainees the KLA thought were collaborating with opposing forces loyal to then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Victims were beaten with batons and baseball bats, forced to hit each other, burned with cigarettes, coerced to simulate sexual acts with each other, and in some cases shot.
Judges at the earlier trial said the torture was “of particular cruelty” and the victims were “particularly vulnerable and defenceless.”
The murder victim was shot in the leg, bleeding profusely from a severed artery. Medics wanted to send him to hospital, but his tormentors refused.
He died the next day in what judges described as “terrible agony.”
In November, Shala was ordered to pay $220,000 in damages to the victims. His appeal against this payment is still pending.
Shala was tried before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court located in The Hague to prosecute mainly former KLA fighters for war crimes. – AFP
