Kosovo’s supreme court has ruled that a former rebel commander, now a senior politician and close ally of the Prime Minister, must face a retrial for war crimes six months after the case against him collapsed.
Fatmir Limaj, a senior commander with the Kosovo Liberation Army, was accused of torturing and killing Serbian prisoners in the Kosovan village of Klecka in 1999. The case collapsed however, after a key witness, fellow KLA fighter Agim Zogaj who was under witness protection in Germany, was found hanging from a tree in September 2011, in an apparent case of suicide.
The court have now overturned a previous decision, stating that,
"The panel also ruled that the evidence of Agim Zogaj, also known as Witness X, is admissible,"
At the time of his acquittal Limaj said that the war he had fought was "a just and clean fight".
However the acquittal sparked anger in Serbia, with war crimes prosecutor reportedly questioning "whether anybody in Kosovo will ever be convicted for crimes committed against Serbs".
Limaj was also acquitted by a UN tribunal in 2005 of similar charges.
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