Prosecutors in The Hague today asked for former KLA leader Hashim Thaçi to be sentenced to six years in prison for disclosing protected witnesses and unlawfully influencing them in an attempt to avoid conviction for war crimes in a separate trial.
According to the prosecutors, Thaçi, who has been in pre-trial detention since the fall of 2020, should serve that sentence only after serving the sentence he could be handed down next Wednesday, September 16, for war crimes committed in Kosovo and Albania in 1998-99.
The indictment accuses Thaçi (58) of revealing the identities of six protected witnesses from the main trial, in which he is charged with war crimes, to his associates who visited him in detention in The Hague in the summer and autumn of 2023, and of instructing the witnesses through those visitors on how to testify.
For co-defendants Fadilj Fazljiu, Isni Kiljaj and Baškim Smakaj, prosecutors today requested sentences of three years in prison each, while they requested nine months in prison for Hajredin Kuçi.
According to the prosecutors, they visited Thaçi in detention and then conveyed his instructions to witnesses on how to testify.
According to the prosecutors, Thaçi sought to “save himself from conviction” at his trial for war crimes in Kosovo and Albania in 1998-99 by unlawfully influencing witnesses. That trial ended in February, and the court will deliver its verdict on Wednesday, September 16.
Prosecutors previously requested that Thaçi and co-defendants Kadri Veselji, Redžep Seljimi and Jakup Krasnići be sentenced to 45 years in prison each in that case.
In today’s closing arguments at the trial in which Thaçi is charged with contempt and obstruction of the Hague court, Chief Prosecutor Kimberly West stressed that Thaçi, “faced with the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, attempted to obstruct the proceedings by influencing witnesses” and that he was “caught with an abundance of evidence.”
Today, prosecutors played recordings of conversations in which Thaçi revealed protected witnesses to his co-defendants and gave instructions on how they should testify.
“Faced with war crimes charges, Thaçi attempted, through his co-defendants, to influence witnesses whom he believed were decisive to the outcome of his case,” West said.
Among those witnesses, according to the prosecutors, were former KLA commanders Rustem Mustafa, known as “Remi”, and Bisljim Zirapi, whom Thaçi, in violation of court orders, instructed through visitors “to shape their testimony in accordance with Thaçi’s narrative.”
“He gave instructions on what the witnesses should or should not say in an attempt to reduce his culpability” for war crimes,” the prosecutor stressed.
The aim was to “soften the picture that the KLA was an organized army and that Thaçi had a command role” and to deny his presence at the crime scenes listed in the indictment.
Thaçi also sent a message to one witness to change a statement he had previously given to Hague prosecutors, in which he had identified Thaçi as being present while he was being abused by the KLA.
According to the prosecutors, Thaçi told one of the witnesses through a visitor to return to Kosovo “as a hero, not as a traitor” and that this was “for his own good.”
Thaçi also printed witnesses’ statements while in detention and then handed them to his co-defendants with corrections entered in his defense’s favor, which the witnesses were supposed to accept.
Prosecutors later found those statements with Kiljaj and Smakaj during searches in Kosovo.
The closing arguments of the prosecution and defense will continue tomorrow.
The trial began in late February, and by the beginning of March, prosecutors had called three witnesses before the court.
Judge Christopher Gosnell also heard testimony from one defense witness for Thaçi, while he accepted the statement of another Thaçi defense witness in written form.
Evidence was presented only by the defense of fourth defendant Kiljaj, which submitted written statements from four witnesses concerning the defendant’s character.
The lawyers for Fazljiu, Smakaj and Kuçi decided not to present defense evidence, convinced that the prosecutors had failed to prove their guilt.
Defendants Kiljaj, Fazljiu, Smakaj and Kuçi are following the closing arguments via video link from Kosovo, as the court released them on temporary release.
First defendant Thaçi is in the courtroom. He has been in pre-trial detention in Scheveningen since November 2020, when he was arrested in Kosovo.
Thaçi faces three counts of obstructing officials in the performance of their duties, four counts of violating the confidentiality of proceedings, and another four counts of contempt of court.
Smakaj, Kiljaj and Fazljiu are charged on two counts with attempting to obstruct an official and with contempt of court, while Kuçi faces two counts of contempt of court.
According to the indictment, despite a court ban, Thaçi disclosed confidential information about witnesses, including their identities, to Fazljiu, Smakaj, Kiljaj and Kuçi, who then had unauthorized contact with the witnesses and attempted to influence them.
Among those witnesses, according to the prosecutors, were former KLA commanders Rustem Mustafa, known as “Remi”, and Bisljim Zirapi. Both testified at the main trial of Thaçi and his co-defendants for war crimes at the prosecution’s request.
The indictment states that on July 2, 2023, Fazljiu visited Thaçi in detention in The Hague and that Thaçi then conveyed confidential information about prosecution witnesses to him.
Thaçi then asked Fazljiu to convey instructions to Rustem Mustafa, “Remi”, about how he should testify.
They “agreed that Fahri Fazljiu, the son of Fadilj Fazljiu, would meet with witness Mustafa.”
The day after the visit to Thaçi, on July 3, 2023, Fahri Fazljiu, according to the indictment, “exchanged messages with Mustafa and suggested that the two of them and Fadilj Fazljiu meet later that day, in accordance with the instructions Fadilj Fazljiu had received from Hashim Thaçi.”
According to the indictment, father and son Fazljiu had previously met with Mustafa, before the visit to Thaçi, on June 29, 2023.
On September 3, 2023, Thaçi disclosed the identities of three protected prosecution witnesses, identified in the indictment as Witnesses 2, 5 and 6, to Hajredin Kuçi, who visited him in detention.
“Thaçi gave him detailed instructions on how the witnesses should testify…. and he (Kuçi) was supposed to convey those instructions to the named witnesses,” the indictment states.
According to the indictment, Kuçi agreed with Thaçi’s instructions, “and he himself also made suggestions about what instructions should be given to Witness 5 and Witness 6.”
In addition, Kuçi confirmed that before visiting Thaçi he had “met at least once with Witness 5 and discussed his testimony.”
Six days later, on September 9, 2023, Baškim Smakaj, Bljerim Šalja, Artan Behrami and others visited Thaçi.
“During that visit, Thaçi conveyed confidential information about prosecution witnesses to them… and on that occasion repeatedly instructed one or more of his visitors to give witness Bisljim Zirapi instructions on how to testify,” the indictment states.
Thaçi “characterized Zirapi’s testimony as crucial and issued detailed instructions on what he should say during his testimony.”
According to the indictment, Thaçi gave further instructions regarding Zirapi’s testimony to Smakaj and Behrami on October 7, 2023, when they visited him again in detention.
Thaçi then handed Smakaj a printed “10-page narrative” about how Zirapi should testify, and that he should do so “briefly, without giving opinions” and with phrases such as “I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
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According to those instructions, Zirapi was supposed to say that Thaçi was not a member of the KLA General Staff and that he spent most of the war outside Kosovo.
On October 30, 2023, Hague investigators searched Smakaj’s car and found in it “a document addressing the content of Zirapi’s expected testimony.”
That document, according to the indictment, “sets out an account of events in accordance with the instructions Thaçi gave” to Smakaj and others during the September 9 and October 7, 2023 visits.
Isni Kiljaj visited Thaçi in detention in The Hague on October 6, 2023, together with Vlaznim Kruezi.
“On that occasion, Thaçi conveyed confidential information about prosecution witnesses to Kiljaj and Kruezi” and “gave them instructions regarding Witness 4 on how he should testify,” the indictment states.
Thaçi also showed the visitors “parts of Witness 4’s earlier confidential statements” and spoke to them about the confidential testimony of “Witness 3.”
Because of this, prosecutors’ investigators searched Isni Kiljaj’s home in Kosovo on November 2, 2023, and found “material containing confidential information” and information about protected witnesses, including their names.
“In a trash bin at Isni Kiljaj’s home, the prosecution found torn pages from Witness 4’s earlier statement,” including parts that Thaçi had discussed with Kiljaj during the October 6 visit.
“The prosecution also found pages from a notebook containing, among other things, summaries of the expected testimony of current and former prosecution witnesses, as well as their codes. The information in the notes found at Isni Kiljaj’s home corresponds to the information contained in the confidential summaries disclosed to Thaçi,” the indictment states.
According to the indictment, Thaçi “coordinated the activities of three groups of individuals” led by Smakaj, Fazljiu and Kiljaj, which also included individuals who have not been charged, as well as with Kuçi, “in order to influence the testimony of prosecution witnesses” at the trial of Thaçi and his co-defendants for war crimes.
Fazljiu, Smakaj and Kiljaj were arrested in Kosovo on December 5, 2023, and transferred to detention in The Hague the following day. Kuçi was not arrested but voluntarily appeared before the court.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges before the court.
The indictment states that Smakaj was head of the Kosovo Intelligence Service from 2017 to 2020 and worked for Thaçi while he was president of Kosovo.
Kiljaj is one of the founders of the KLA and the head of Thaçi’s party in Mališevo, while Fazljiu was a former member of that paramilitary force in the Podujevo area.
Hajredin Kuçi was Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo and Minister of Justice in Thaçi’s cabinet. In the ongoing trial of Thaçi on charges of war crimes, Kuçi was a member of the defense team for second defendant Kadri Veselji, head of the KLA intelligence service.
Thaçi has been in detention in The Hague since November 2020. The main trial of Thaçi and his co-defendants for war crimes in Kosovo and Albania in 1998-99 began in April 2023 and ended in February this year.
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Source: N1 ; Foto:Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP / KOEN VAN WEEL
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