Former Kosovo fighter goes on trial accused of war crimes

Former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala attends his trial at the Kosovo Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands (Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool/AP)

A former fighter with the Kosovo Liberation Army was responsible for the murder of one person and the illegal detention and torture of nearly 20 more during his country’s war for independence from Serbia, an international prosecutor has said at the start of a war crimes trial.

The defendant, Pjeter Shala, insists he is innocent and has pleaded not guilty to four charges of war crimes at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court that is part of the Kosovo legal system but based in the Netherlands.