AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -An international court set up to handle cases related to Kosovo said on Monday that Albanian authorities had arrested Dritan Goxhaj under a warrant issued by the tribunal for allegedly impeding the course of justice.
The Netherlands-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers said in a statement that Goxhaj, identified by media as a former fighter with the Kosovo Liberation Army, was wanted for “offences against the administration of justice involving intimidation and obstructing official persons in performing official duties”.
A lawyer for Goxhaj could not immediately be reached for comment.
Radio Free Europe said Goxhaj was suspected of revealing the names of protected witnesses in several criminal cases related to the war in Kosovo. He will be detained in Albania pending a decision by authorities on his transfer to The Hague, the report said.
The court, which is staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas in their fight for independence from Serbia.
The court’s top suspect is former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who went on trial in April and faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity from his days as one of the leaders of the 1998-99 guerrilla uprising against Serbian rule.
Thaci denies wrongdoing.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and won recognition from over 100 countries, mainly in the West, but not Serbia, Russia or China.
(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams and Mark Potter)
