Overview

• Shala’s convictions for murder, torture and arbitrary detention at a makeshift prison during the 1998–99 Kosovo conflict were confirmed by the appeals panel in The Hague.
• The panel reversed several convictions for torture and arbitrary detention related to certain detainees while upholding charges for other victims, including the killing of one man who was denied medical care.
• Judges reduced Shala’s sentence by five years after finding that the original term exceeded norms in comparable cases.
• The appeals chamber emphasized that Shala’s lack of command responsibility had not been properly weighed at trial.
• The EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, set up in 2015 in The Hague, continues to try former KLA fighters under Kosovo law.