The Kosovo Specialist Chambers war crimes court in The Hague extended the detention of ex-President Hashim Thaci and ex-parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli, citing concerns that they might abscond or interfere with witnesses.
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Thaci and Veseli on a billboard with the caption ‘war heroes’ in Pristina, July 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.
The pre-trial judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Nicolas Guillou, decided on Thursday that Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli should remain in detention ahead of their trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.
Judge Guillou turned down a defence request for the release of Thaci and Veseli, who were two of the wartime leaders of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. The two men have been in detention for around a year and a half, since November 2020.
Judge Guillou concluded that “the risks that Mr Thaci (and Mr Veseli) will abscond, obstruct the progress of SC [Specialist Chambers] proceedings, or commit further crimes against those perceived as being opposed to the KLA, including witnesses who have provided or could provide evidence in the case and/or are due to appear before the SC, continue to exist”.
The so-called Special Court ruled that house arrest is also out of the question because Thaci and Veseli wield significant authority in Kosovo and because their defence teams have not introduced new arguments in their latest requests for their release.
“The pre-trial judge further recalls that he found that the evidence reveals that while Mr Veseli was at the head of the SHIK [Kosovo Intelligence Agency], members of the SHIK were involved in witness interference,” judge Guillou said, explaining the risk of witness-tampering if Veseli was released from detention.
Thaci was political director of the KLA and became Kosovo’s president in the post-war period, while Veseli was head of the KLA’s intelligence service and later became parliament speaker. He was the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, at the time of his arrest.
The two men are awaiting trial on war crimes charges alongside two of their former comrades-in-arms, also important political figures in Kosovo – the head of the parliamentary group of the Vetevendosje Movement opposition party, Rexhep Selimi, and the chairman of the national council of the Social Democratic Initiative (NISMA) party, Jakup Krasniqi.
Thaci, Veseli, Selimi, and Krasniqi are accused of being responsible for crimes committed by themselves and other former members of the KLA in various parts of Kosovo but also in northern Albania against hundreds of civilians and non-combatants.
Most of the crimes were committed in detention centres in 17 municipalities in Kosovo and two districts of Albania, Kukes and Has.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were set up to try crimes allegedly committed during and just after the Kosovo war from 1998 to 2000. They are part of Kosovo’s judicial system but located in the Netherlands and staffed by internationals.
They were set up under pressure from Kosovo’s Western allies, who feared that Kosovo’s justice system was not robust enough to try KLA cases and protect witnesses from interference.
The so-called ‘special court’ is widely resented by Kosovo Albanians who see it as an insult to the KLA’s war for liberation from Serbian rule.
Source link: balkaninsight.com