Specific accusations, evidence and witnesses against leaders of so-called KLA in October

Photo illustration: Tanjug/AP, kosovo-online.com

The Specialist Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo will be ready in mid-October to submit a pre-trial brief, a list of witnesses and evidence against the former bosses of the so-called KLA. Hashim Thaci and three other persons are accused of war crimes committed against Serbs in Kosovo, as well as Albanians disloyal to the KLA.

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In the submission for the sixth status conference, which is to be held tomorrow before the pre-trial judge of the Specialist Chambers of Kosovo based in The Hague, the Prosecution stressed that its investigations in this case will continue in the future, but that this will not affect preparations for trial.

The Prosecution plans to file two more requests for witness protection, and announced that it will disclose certain evidence this week, including additional witness statements, as well as video and documentary evidence.

The pre-trial procedure is a document in which the Prosecution specifies which charges each of the accused is facing with and which evidence supports those. On the other hand, the defense attorneys of the accused again complained in the submission for tomorrow's status conference about the difficulties they face in conducting investigations, due to the Covid pandemic.

They also repeated they had problems with untimely and partial disclosure of evidence, extensive redacting of the disclosed material, as well as alleged ongoing investigations conducted by the Prosecution.

The court's secretariat stated in its submission that, based on the advice of the medical officer, personal family visits to the accused continued on July 15, and that vaccination of close family members is not necessary for these visits to continue.

Visits by other family members should continue in August or September, if the medical officer greenlights it given the pandemic situation, both in the Netherlands and around the world, the document said. The Registry notes that video visits will continue with close relatives of the detainees as much as possible.

Photo: Tanjug/AP

The status conference will be held before a pre-trial judge, and will be attended by representatives of the prosecution, the defense, as well as a representative of the victims.

As before, the accused will most likely follow the conference via a video link from their detention units, and their views and interests will be represented by their defense attorneys.

Thaci and the others were arrested in early November 2020 and have been in custody in The Hague ever since. Thaci resigned as president of so-called Kosovo and surrendered to The Hague court.

All four former KLA chiefs have been charged with a number of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 40 locations where people were illegally detained, tortured and murdered. If found guilty, the defendants could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

The indictment alleges that the crimes were committed between March 1998 and September 1999 in several places in Kosovo, as well as in northern Albania.

According to the indictment, the acts were committed by KLA members against hundreds of civilians and persons who were not active participants in the hostilities. The victims were mostly Serbs, but also Albanians disloyal to the KLA.

The indictment alleges that Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi bear individual criminal responsibility, according to various forms of criminal responsibility, for crimes committed in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Kosovo, which were part of a widespread and systematic attack on persons suspected of being against the KLA paramilitary formation.

(Telegraf.rs)