Pjeter Shala, known during wartime by the nom de guerre Commander Wolf, launched his appeal on Thursday and Friday at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague against a guilty verdict for the arbitrary detention and torture of at least 18 wartime detainees and the murder of one prisoner.
The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office and the legal counsel representing the victims’ interests in the trial urged the court to confirm the 18-year sentence.
Shala’s defense lawyer Leto Carioulo told the court on Friday that her client did not have a direct intention to commit the murder of the victim as the prosecution claims, and that “the defense does not accept that Shala was present when the victim was mistreated and when he was shot with a gun.”.
She said that a guilty verdict cannot be reached “based on unverified evidence”. She also said that “the sentence should be within the range provided by law from five to 15 [years], and not, as the trial panel determined, 18 years.”
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