Kosovo tribunal convicts former KLA commander in first war crimes verdict

Salih Mustafa, a former Kosovo rebel, waits in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court for the judges to read the verdict in The Hague, Netherlands, December 16, 2022. Mustafa is charged with the war crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, the torture of at least six people and the murder of one person at a detention compound in Zllash, Kosovo, in April 1999. Salih Mustafa pleaded not guilty to all charges. Peter Dejong/Pool via REUTERS

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) - In a milestone ruling judges at the Kosovo tribunal on Friday convicted a former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla commander who ran a prison where torture took place during the 1998-99 independence conflict with Serbia.

In its first ever war crimes verdict, the court sentenced Salih Mustafa to 26 years in prison for war crimes including murder and torture in a detention centre where prisoners, mostly fellow Kosovo Albanians who were political opponents of the KLA, were beaten and tortured on a daily basis.