Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) veteran Dritan GoxHajj has been arrested in Albania by international court order.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (based in the Netherlands), said in a statement that GoxHajj was wanted for “offenses against the administration of justice involving intimidation and obstructing official persons in performing official duties.” Goxhaj’s lawyer says that the Kosovo Specialist Chambers issued the warrant because of an article Goxhaj authored in which he revealed the names of protected witnesses in several criminal cases related to the war in Kosovo. GoxHajj is currently detained in Albania on a charge of impeding the course of justice, pending a decision by authorities on his transfer to The Hague.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and won recognition from over 100 countries, mainly in the West, but not Serbia, Russia or China. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up in 2017 to handle cases of Liberation Army guerrillas in their fight for independence. Its past prosecutions include the former Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi and the former commander of a KLA guerrilla unit Salih Mustafa.
The charge against GoxHajj is indicative of The Kosovo Specialist Chambers’ long struggle to protect the identities of witnesses.