A team of international prosecutors said Friday they were set to begin investigating the alleged involvement of the Kosovo state leadership in organized crime and war atrocities.
The unit, endorsed by the European Union and headed by US prosecutor Clint Williamson, will probe allegations from a European Council report indirectly implicating Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in organized crime and war atrocities.
The report was presented to the Council by Swiss prosecutor Dick Marti in December 2010, after two years of investigation.
It alleged that people from Thaci's inner circle were at the centre of organized crime and atrocities such as illegal organ-harvesting during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.
Serbia had been accusing Thaci of the atrocity for years. Thaci and other Kosovo leaders dismissed the allegations as a part of a smear campaign.
Williamson already visited Kosovo in mid-October and was soon due to visit Serbia and Albania, Kosovo's neighbour, where a part of the alleged organ-harvesting took place.
The seven-member task force, with the authority to raise criminal charges, will operate attached to the EU's law-enforcing mission in Kosovo, the EULEX, but with a significant degree of autonomy. - Sapa-dpa