A former Kosovo Liberation Army commander turned Member of Parliament, Fatmir Limaj, has pleaded not guilty to charges allegedly torturing and executing Serb prisoners during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
See report by the Associated Press here.
Limaj is also the deputy president of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo and his case marks the first time a high-ranking KLA commander is being tried for war crimes before the local judiciary, chaired by British judge Jonathan Welford-Carroll.
He stands accused of running a detention centre on Klecka, where Serb prisoners of war were kept and faces a maximum sentence of 40 years if found guilty.
He was originally tried before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.
There has been opposition to the trail from organisations such as the Veterans Association of the Kosovo Liberation Army who have accused the EU mission of "conducting a witch hunt" against the former rebels and trying to place them on par with the Serbian regime.
Nine other former KLA members also face trial alongside Limaj, all of whom pleaded not guilty.
See our earlier post: Senior Kosovo politician detained on suspicion of war crimes (Sep 2011)
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