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Kosovo PM seeks to sue European investigator
[December 16, 2010]
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP)
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has contacted attorneys to pursue a libel suit against Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty. Marty rocked Kosovo with his report that civilian detainees of the KLA were shot to death to sell their kidneys on the black market and suggesting that Thaci was once the "boss" of a criminal underworld behind the grisly trade. Marty was expected to speak at a press conference in Paris in the afternoon. Thaci was the rebel army's political head during the 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia. His party just won the Kosovo's first general elections since it declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but he has not appeared in public since the report was released Tuesday. The official said Thaci is also considering suing the London-based Guardian newspaper, which first published the report. Marty, a Swiss senator, led a team of investigators to Kosovo and Albania in 2009, following allegations of organ trafficking by the KLA published in a book by former U.N. War Crimes tribunal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte who said she was given information by Western journalists. Marty's investigation found that there were a number of detention facilities in Albania, where both Kosovan opponents of the KLA and Serbs were allegedly held once the hostilities in Kosovo were over in 1999, including a "state-of-the-art reception center for the organized crime of organ trafficking." EU investigators looking into claims that organ harvesting took place in northern Albania have said they found no proof of the allegations. The EU police force in Kosovo on Wednesday called for those with evidence to come forward. |
