The Specialist Chambers in The Hague announced today that it has rejected the request by former KLA leaders Kadri Veselji, Redžep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi to be released from detention on temporary liberty in Kosovo. Together with Hashim Thaçi, they are accused of war crimes in Kosovo and Albania, 1998-99.
First accused Thaçi did not submit a request for temporary release. In a separate proceeding, Thaçi is also accused of obstructing the court by impermissibly influencing witnesses through visitors he received in Hague detention.
The trial panel of American judge Charles Smith determined that there was a risk that Veselji, Selimi, and Krasniqi, if released, could obstruct the work of the court, influence witnesses, and repeat the criminal offenses for which they are accused.
Rejecting the request of the three accused, the panel again emphasized that in Kosovo there is a long-standing climate of intimidation and harassment of witnesses in proceedings in which KLA members are accused, as well as of all persons who are seen as “KLA opponents.”
With the same reasoning, the judges extended the detention of Thaçi, Veselji, Selimi, and Krasniqi every two months since their arrest in Kosovo in the fall of 2020, even though, according to the court panel, there is no risk that the accused could flee.
The trial of the four KLA leaders began on April 3, 2023, and prosecutors finished presenting evidence against the accused on April 15 of this year.
125 prosecution witnesses testified in the Hague courtroom, and the statements of dozens of other witnesses were introduced as evidence by the prosecutors in written form.
The prosecution’s evidentiary material also consists of 3,000 documents in Albanian, Serbian, and English.
More than 150 victims are also participating in the process.
The next step in the procedure is the submission of a request by the defense of the four accused for the dismissal of some or all of the 10 counts of the indictment, which charges them with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Kosovo and Albania.
All four defenses will submit a joint request for acquittal, and the deadline for this expires today, June 12.
According to court rules, the accused have the right to submit a request for acquittal based on the assessment that the prosecutors did not prove their guilt during the two-year evidentiary procedure that ended in mid-April.
The judges decided that the prosecutors will have to respond to this request by the defenders of the accused by July 7.
The trial panel announced that it will announce its decision on the defense’s request for the dismissal of individual or all counts of the indictment in the week beginning July 14.
If the trial panel rejects the request of the accused to be acquitted, the process will continue with the presentation of evidence by the representatives of more than 150 victims participating in the trial.
The victims’ representative, Simon Laws, announced that, in mid-July, he would bring two experts before the court – for psychological trauma and economic damage suffered by the victims – and also left open the possibility that some of the victims might testify.
If the accused are found guilty and convicted at the end of the trial, their victims, according to the court’s statute, have the right to compensation.
After the victims’ representative presents his evidence, the evidentiary procedure of the defense of the accused should follow.
The 10-count indictment charges Thaçi (56), Veselji (57), Selimi (53), and Krasniqi (74) with: persecution on political and ethnic grounds, imprisonment, unlawful arrest and detention, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment, enforced disappearance, torture (two counts), and murders (two counts).
According to the indictment, members of the KLA, under the command of the accused, committed the stated crimes against Albanians declared “collaborators,” Serbs, and Roma in 42 illegal KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and Albania.
KLA members committed crimes against approximately 407 detainees, of whom at least 102 were killed, from March 1998 to September 1999, the indictment states.
The indictment identifies 75 victims – 51 Serbian, 23 Albanian, and one Roma.
Six counts of the indictment charge Thaçi, Veselji, Selimi, and Krasniqi with crimes against humanity, and four counts with war crimes.
According to the indictment, Thaçi, Veselji, Selimi, and Krasniqi were participants in a joint criminal enterprise.
The goal of this criminal enterprise was to take control of all of Kosovo through violence against all those the KLA considered “opponents.”
As accomplices in the criminal association, the indictment also names KLA officers: Azem Sulja, Ljah Brahimaj, Fatmir Ljimaj, Sujelman Seljimi, Rustem Mustafa, Shukri Buja, Ljatif Gaši, and Sabit Geci.
All accused have pleaded not guilty. They have been in custody in The Hague since their arrest in Kosovo in November 2020.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, as the court is officially called, was established in 2015 by the Assembly of Kosovo under international pressure caused by the report of the Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty on KLA crimes in Kosovo and Albania, published in 2011.
The court is formally part of Kosovo’s judicial system but operates in The Hague. In judgments and other documents, the court has found that there is a persistent climate of intimidation and harassment of witnesses against accused members of the former KLA in Kosovo.
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Source: N1, Photo: Wikimedia Creative Commons