A terrorist, commander of KLA, war criminal, organizer of heroin transport: Who is Rustem Mustafa Remi who will be put to trial in the Hague?

Rustem Mustafa Remi, commander of the former Kosovo Liberation Army for Podujevska area, who will be charged for war crimes, according to Koha claims, is the only leader of KLA on Kosovo and Metohija (KiM) who was sentenced to prison.

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He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 due to the fact that he acted inhumanely towards the captured Albanian civilians because he doubted their loyalty to the terrorist KLA, Blic writes.

Mustafa, who was a commander of KLA for the territory of Laba, formed a criminal organization which was controlling that area, and he was marked by security services of the western countries as one of the main organizers of terrorist actions on Kosovo and Metohija, Macedonia and in municipalities in Central Serbia - Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo from the start of 2001.

It is stated in the Security Intelligence Agency's report that he is one of the most influential commanders of KLA and Kosovo Corps and that the class was focused on activities related to drug trafficking.

Blic states that he and his criminal organization controlled the transportation of heroin and marijuana through the territory of Laba and surrounding municipalities, and at the same time they established close contacts with persons controlling the transportation of drugs from Albania and Turkey through KiM to Europe. 

As it is stated, they knew about Mustafa's terrorism in the USA - by the decision of US President George Bush on June 29, 2001, Mustafa gets on the list of people who pose a "threat to peace o the western Balkans and international forces in the region", according to Blic.

Foto: Profimedia/AFP

Rustem Mustafa, known as a commander Remi, was born in Kosovo in 1971. During the war in Kosovo 1998-1999, he was a commander of the regional zone Lab and he was a member of the so-called Lapska group of KLA.

Serbian and Albanian civilians were allegedly murdered under his command and their property was robbed and destroyed. The others were kidnapped and they were illegally detained in prisons in villages Bradas and Gornja Lapastica, writes the website trialinternational.org.

Rustem and others allegedly held prisoners in inhumane conditions, depriving them of adequate healthcare, food, and water, and they were subjected to constant beating, torturing, and other death threats since August 1998 to June 1999.

In April 1999 Mustafa allegedly ordered Nazif Mehmeti to kill five Albanians who were locked up in prison centers in Majak and Potok and who were charged with cooperating with Serbian forces, stated on the website of the NGO.

After the conflict, Rustem Mustafa became the first member of the parliament and the vice president of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo.

He was arrested in August 2002 and he was brought in front of the County Court in Pristina with the international judges from UNMIK.

He was convicted on July 16, 2003, along with three other members of the KLA for the killing of five Kosovo Albanians to 17 years in prison, but the Supreme Court of Kosovo changed it in 2005.

According to the intel, Mustafa cooperated with Ramush Haradinaj in his criminal activities, first and foremost in drug trafficking, until 2015, when he was sentenced, when he was an MP and a vice president of Thaci's party, writes Blic.

Foto: Telegraf.rs

Groups under Mustafa control, besides expelling remaining Serbs, started reselling abandoned apartments and other properties.

Mustafa, besides the terrorist group "BIA", directly formed "Skifters" and "Red hand", whose members hunted, kidnapped, and murdered remaining Serbs in the area of Pristina and Podijevo.

Based on the statements of the family members of the killed Albanians Agim Musli, Alius Kastrati, Idriz Svace, Drita Voce, and the witness of those murders Enver Sekirac, UNMIK arrested Rustem Mustafa on August 11, 2002.

In 2003, the International Council of the District Court in Pristina sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

The Supreme Court of Kosovo annulled the verdict in 2005 and ordered a new trial in which Mustafa was sentenced to four years in prison in 2013, Blic writes, adding that the Pristina Court of Appeal confirmed in November 2015 the first instance verdict.

Otherwise, attorney Arianit Koci confirmed that his client, Rustem Mustafa-Remi, received a summon to appear before the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Kosovo in The Hague on January 14th. 

According to the Kosovo portal Telegrafi, Mustafa's attorney wrote on his Facebook that it is an invitation for an interview and that Mustafa will voluntarily appear.

- He is ready to clarify each circumstance being investigated by the court. This is everything we know so far and I am asking the reporters to show understanding and not to contact Mustafa with questions about this - wrote his attorney.

The media already reported that Rustem Mustafa is the first one who was called by the Special Court, that he is known as a commander Remi from Lapa zone, and that he was an MP in the Kosovo parliament.

The special court for Kosovo was formed in 2015 with the votes of MPs of Kosovo parliament, and its mission is to investigate the claims from the report of Dick Murthy, on crimes which is stated that they happened between 1998 to 2000.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)